“I don’t think I’ve ever bowled seven in a row in a one-day game,” Jacob Bethell spoke of his unchanged spell at Lord’s that cleared the biggest boulder in England’s path to victory. Chasing 388, India required 195 runs going into the last twenty overs, with Rohit Sharma on the verge of a redeeming hundred after a solo fifty-plus score in his last eight innings. As chasemaster Virat Kohli lost his shape in an attempt to bash the ball, managing only 4 in 11 balls post the drinks break, Rohit was keeping the pursuit alive. However, sliding in with the arm, one of the most impactful deliveries Bethell has sent down in his career knocked him over, sealing India’s fate despite Kohli’s resurgence en route to a personal best effort at the venue.
In an encounter where England saw merit in backloading a part-time spinner, India left genuine wicket-taker Kuldeep Yadav on the bench, notwithstanding the absence of spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. His committed practice session on the match eve, during which he was inseparable from the ball except for the time when he entered the adjacent net to hone his range-hitting skills, turned out to be a tease as India’s attack again wore a seam-dominant look. England, on the other hand, employed three varied spinners in the middle phase alongside Sam Curran, whose dipping moonballs were a thorn in India’s flesh.
It is common knowledge that Lord’s amazing hospitality does not extend to batters. Right from the 2019 ODI World Cup final to the Test pitch for New Zealand’s sojourn this summer, having the first crack with the willow is highly recommended as the surfaces tend to get tackier. Not since 2017 has an ODI been won at the home of cricket by the team chasing. Recently, Sophie Ecclestone and Mady Villers found purchase early on the first of the historic four days. In fact, India couldn’t even pick up on Harry Brook’s dead giveaway in the press conference. “It generally gets quite slower here” was his response to a query on what sort of surface should the teams look forward to.
Shortly thereafter, India confirmed Harsh Dubey as replacement for the injured Washington Sundar. Despite his superior batting as compared to Kuldeep, exposing two left-arm spinners to a line-up featuring three southpaws in the top six was a recipe for disaster, so expectations heightened around the inclusion of the wrist spinner whose stock ball threatens their outside edge. Yet, as India took the field without an established point of difference – Kuldeep boasts of 194 ODI wickets – England made a legitimate mockery of the records.
Openers Bethell and Ben Duckett added 192 to form the best partnership for any wicket at Lord’s, depriving India of a breakthrough till the 31st over. Thanks to his 141 Duckett produced the top individual figure at Lord’s, and the second finest versus India in the format. Adjudged the player of the series for his tally of 249*, Joe Root paired up with vintage Jos Buttler to ransack 126 off the last ten. It was a leather hunt equally cruel to that inflicted upon the visitors in Southampton, with the inexperienced Gurnoor Brar bleeding 97. India’s lone tweaker, Axar Patel, went wicketless and fielding blemishes sinked the boat further. Momentum beat KL Rahul’s core strength on the rope while Prasidh needed forever to have a shy at the striker’s end as India reprieved Duckett and Root, respectively. An extra fielder inside the ring due to a slow over-rate penalty was the straw that broke the camel’s back, offering England 62 off the ultimate 18.
India’s selection blunder became painfully obvious once the second half witnessed the introduction of spin following an array of breezy pulls from Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. The maiden sweep off Rashid met air thanks to the grip and bite off the deck. From the opposite end, Will Jacks saw an unsuccessful encore off his bowling. Gill ran out of patience soon and danced down the track only for his downswing to be defeated by the deviation, with the edge falling short of an approaching Rehan Ahmed at long-off. There wasn’t any luck whatsoever on the subsequent try either, as third man fielded the poor connection.
Now Gill is feeling the pinch. He craves a boundary with the desperation of an online chess player mired in a losing spree. Square leg is deep, so he must go finer. The shot is premeditated, the bat face closed. He misses Rashid’s topspinner to finish in an awkward position, caught plumb in front. Likewise, Kuldeep has a knack for oneupmanship, as evidenced by his dismissal of Saud Shakeel in the marquee event of 2023. His penchant for the sweep is no secret, and its wonderful execution has led to an insanely high Test average against spin.
England captured the big fish next, with another sweep shot bringing the curtains down on a masterclass that ushered Rohit’s ton meter in England to eight, the most by a visitor, besides quashing the retirement rumours in grand style. Shedding light on the prized scalp, head coach Brendon McCullum reflected on his discussion with Brook. “We felt the drive-it-in type of spinner who bowls into the surface and takes the ball away from the right-hander might be worth pumping with enough runs on the board at that stage. It was the right time to take an educated gamble.”
Kuldeep also shares similar traits, the origin story of which dates back to the pandemic. In the aftermath of an IPL hammering in 2020, Kuldeep was mostly relegated to the bench for India’s tour of Australia as well as the home series against England. Eventually getting the nod in the one-dayers, he couldn’t strike once, leaking 152 runs across the two fixtures. Pundits reckoned his air speed and zip off the deck ought to improve, for he wasn’t the same bowler after sustaining a grave knee injury. Kuldeep straightened his angular run-up in order to put more body behind the ball, since relying solely on shoulder rotation for a flatter trajectory is bound to compromise turn.
In the next couple of years, Kuldeep found a different gear. India’s ex-bowling coach Paras Mhambrey credited his toil behind the scenes for the gradual turnaround. “He’s worked on certain things, made those technical changes and you could see that in his bowling. The speeds have gone up, the lengths and areas have become better and in that sense, there are a lot of big ticks for us.” After all, when Kuldeep is fit and firing, Babar Azam is castled through the gate and Buttler stands no chance of survival. He was the dangerman’s kryptonite; the web he spun at his peak impossible to wriggle out from.
Rueing his stranglehold, India was in the throes of an exercise in futility, that is restricting a power-packed unit with a homogenous combination. Root reverse swept Axar twice in an over, a high percentage stroke as he was using the spin to his benefit. Having Kuldeep in tandem would’ve diversified the challenge, for not only are his variations hard to read at release England, barring Root, have technical flaws against that mode of operation, best exemplified by their dud of a campaign in the subcontinent three years ago.
In the company of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep learned the art of getting through his overs quickly, under pressure in particular so that the batter is robbed of the bandwidth to plot and plan his moves. Though unlike the senior pro, Kuldeep has been devoid of consistent selection in the playing eleven. “I would love to see Kuldeep handed better treatment because he is a matchwinner,” Ravichandran Ashwin told Cricinfo, urging India to pluck a leaf out of England’s book as their attacking option Rashid continues to feature ahead of all-rounder Rehan Ahmed. For context, Washington and Axar were instrumental with the bat in Birmingham, India’s only triumph on this trip to United Kingdom.
The only defense for not playing Kuldeep usually is that the batting finishes at number 7, wonder how it feels to have Arshdeep at number 8 today!
Adding Bumrah’s absence to that, one can only feel bad for Kuldeep.
Trust me, this can affect the rythm and confidence of a…
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) July 19, 2026
A start-stop graph veering into the infuriating territory can actually drive professional athletes to the extreme. Sam Billings preferred representing Lahore Qalandars in PSL 2025 rather than carrying electrolytes to his England teammates in Bangladesh after eight years spent predominantly on the sidelines in the hope of a long rope.
Albeit his namesake has cemented his place in the English white-ball squads. Curran’s juicy 50mph floater was too tempting for Ishan Kishan to resist, more so given the asking rate, but the destination proved to be Rehan’s bucket hands instead of the upper tier. In-form Kohli and Shreyas Iyer succumbed to his subterfuge too, nudging Gill into an introspective mood in the presser. “The matches that we played prior to this, the wickets were not offering that much to the spinners. Whenever spinners came into bowl we felt like we had to take the defensive route, but when the fast bowlers were bowling something was always happening. That was the thought process behind not playing an extra spinner because in the middle overs, you obviously want to create pressure and see if the chances can be created.”
“Maybe in hindsight you know, looking at the wicket, I think it got a little bit slower. When Axar bhai was bowling, it didn’t look like the wicket will get that slow, but it did got a tad bit slower as the game went on.”
As far as the reading of conditions is concerned, India have been emphatically outwitted by England on this tour. Granted, the home team always holds an advantage in that regard, but the tourists were too far off the mark considering their stature. Due to Kuldeep’s omission in circumstances tailored to his approach, India lost a golden opportunity to salvage pride by conquering the one-day leg.
