India move past Archer's first-over strike upon Test return
Earlier, Bumrah picked up his maiden Test five-wicket haul at Lord's
ESPNcricinfo staff
11-Jul-2025 • 5 hrs ago

Jofra Archer struck in his first over back • Getty Images
Jasprit Bumrah was saved, or saved himself, for Lord's. The temptation of the most famous honour's board in the world might have had something to do with it, and if so, the plan worked. Bumrah was able to claim a five-for that helped bowl England out for 387 but he was far from the only fast bowler that set the pulse racing.
Jofra Archer would have spent three years thinking about this moment, being told of the light at the end of the tunnel as he willed himself through the rehab his body needed to shoulder the burden that comes with red-ball cricket. Three balls into his first over back, the light wasn't hypothetical anymore. His day in the sun had finally come and he was bathed in its glow as he celebrated a wicket with his third ball back. His fourth one, roused by the sight of a new batter in his crosshairs, was 93 mph.
Bumrah was carving out legacy. Archer was clearing away the cobwebs. Lord's was spoiled rotten.
They stood up as one to salute Joe Root when he got the chance the vent the nerves of spending the night on 99, the first ball offering him width that he took on happily. An outside edge squirted away to the deep third boundary to signal the Englishman's 37th Test century - which puts him in the top five in all of Test cricket. He went past Rahul Dravid and Steven Smith.
Bumrah decided he wasn't willing to share the stage anymore. So he sent back both the England captain Ben Stokes and their century maker as well, Root falling to the India seamer for the 11th time. There was another small victory for the visitors in this period of play when Shubman Gill secured his first successful review on tour to get rid of Chris Woakes. He rattled Archer's stumps as well to collect his 13th five-wicket haul away from home, a new national record, one more than the great Kapil Dev.
Jasprit Bumrah picked up his first five-for at Lord's•Getty Images
India continued to challenge the umpires, their irritation sparked by a second new ball that needed to be changed - a mere 10.3 overs into its use - and the replacement looking much the worse for wear. Gill spent the entire morning drinks break with umpires Paul Reiffel and Sharfuddoula voicing his dissatisfaction, which had to have played a role in the officials eventually switching out even the replacement ball, after eight overs.
Away in the background, Jamie Smith, who was dropped by KL Rahul on 5, just kept his head down and did his thing. Once more, he led an England lower-order recovery mission, his skillset perfectly suited to the task. A 52-ball half-century was the result of a man concentrating on the job at hand while the opposition was too busy fretting about what could have been. India tried to forget about Smith and blow away the other end, but that didn't work either. Brydon Carse was batting well enough to hit Akash Deep on the up through the covers and getting down on bent knee to slash Bumrah past point. He completed an entertaining maiden half-century in Tests as England's last three wickets added 116 runs.
India's reply began brightly, Yashasvi Jaiswal collecting three fours in the first over, but he couldn't last the next one. Rahul, armed with impeccable judgement around the off stump, and Karun Nair, whose determination to make his second chance count was matched by England's ruthlessness, to prevent it from happening epitomised by a short-ball barrage, took India to tea at 44 for 1.