The last five Tests India played at the Lord’s garnered mixed results for the Men in Blue
India lost the first game against England but made a historic comeback, registering its first-ever victory at Edgbaston. Under Shubman Gill’s captaincy, India recorded a landmark win at a venue where India had a record of seven wins and one defeat since the beginning of Test cricket for the nation.
However, the job is only half done, as the team now looks forward to doing well in the Lord’s Test, hoping to turn the series in its favour, which presently stands at 1-1 out of five games.
The Lord’s, i.e., the Mecca of Cricket, has not been entirely in India’s favour. In fact, the record displays poor numbers: out of 19 Test matches India has played so far, the team has won only three, lost four, and 12 games ended in draws.
And what about the last five games? Here’s a minor glimpse of India at Lord's
India’s last visit to the Lord’s was in 2021. Under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, the team registered one of the three victories India has ever achieved at the iconic venue. KL Rahul was the star of the game with his 129 runs, whereas in the bowling department, it was Mohammed Siraj with an eight-wicket haul that helped India win the game by a massive margin of 151 runs.
2018 was a horror show for the Indian batting line-up, which succumbed to merely 107 runs in the first innings, whereas the hosts scored 396 runs. The second innings was no better as the Indian batters faltered at 130 runs. England scripted one of the most significant victories in Test history by an innings and 159 runs. The loss proved to be one of the worst in Virat Kohli’s career.
Lord’s 2014 was only India’s second victory in the history of Test cricket after a hiatus of 28 years, having won the first one in 1986. Although Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not have a gala time with the willow, Ajinkya Rahane’s 103 and Murali Vijay’s 95 were crucial innings that helped India script the victory. Not to be forgotten, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, despite being a tailender, scored 36 runs and 52 runs in the first and second innings, respectively, which proved to be the pivot of the game. The second innings also saw the heroics of Ishant Sharma, who grabbed seven wickets to dismantle the British batting line-up.
Despite a strong batting lineup, the 2007 Test squad with names such as Rahul Dravid, Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sourav Ganguly couldn’t score enough to stay in the game against England from the first innings. However, in the second innings, a collective effort by Dinesh Karthik (60), Ganguly (40), VVS Laxman, and MS Dhoni (76) ensured India a draw, if not a victory.
Fresh from the NatWest final victory, India had hoped to script another historic triumph at the Lord’s—this time in a Test. However, the hosts had revenge on their minds, and they achieved it by defeating India by 170 runs. The bowling line-up was hammered in the first innings by England, who scored 487 runs, whereas India's batters only accumulated 221. India tried to salvage the game by stopping England at 301 while hitting 397 in the second innings, but the effort wasn’t enough to save the game.
