England’s batters stood firm in the morning session of Day 3 at Old Trafford, giving India’s bowlers a tough time. With steady scoring and few mistakes, they kept control and pushed India under pressure in this important Test. The visitors struggled to find a breakthrough, making it a testing start to the day for their bowling unit.

Joe Root and Ollie Pope dominate Indian bowling lineup in the opening session of Day 3

After a brilliant performance from the home side on the second day, England resumed on 225 for 2 and showed great control against the Indian bowlers. They kept rotating strike with frequent boundaries around the ground. Batters Ollie Pope and Joe Root piled on a massive 166-run partnership, leaving the bowlers visibly frustrated. With a significant amount of batting still to come, the home side will be eyeing a huge total to push the game out of India’s reach.

England’s star batter Root achieved multiple milestones with his composed innings. The 34-year-old brought up his 67th Test half-century, surpassing legends like Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid in the all-time tally. Root also completed 1000 runs at Old Trafford, underlining his dominance at the venue. Pope, on the other hand, looked equally solid with his proactive strokeplay and strike-rotation, bringing up his 16th Test fifty in fine style.

Indian bowlers toil without success till Lunch

It was a tough day for the visitors, as the Indian bowlers continued to struggle with poor line and length. Debutant Anshul Kamboj looked nervous and lacked control, while senior bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah also failed to make an impact. The fielding didn’t help either—India missed a few run-out chances, and wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel dropped a catch off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling. The team looked frustrated and out of ideas. If they don’t regroup soon and find a way to stop England’s scoring, the home side could take the game completely out of India’s reach.

Also READ: Ravichandran Ashwin slams team management for choosing extra all-rounder over Kuldeep Yadav in Manchester Test

Here’s how fans reacted:

All Indian bowlers have gone for minimum 3 RPO so far in the first innings. Two conceding at over 4,, while two others with 5+ economy.#ENGvIND

— Rohan महाजन (@mahajanrohan99) July 25, 2025

All fast bowlers are bowling like club level bowlers. So why only Shardul getting less overs to bowl???#INDvsENGTest #ENGvIND

— Pranav Sinha (@pranavsinha581) July 25, 2025

The amount of records that Joe Root has got is quite frankly ridiculous
What a remarkable achievement
What a batsman #ENGvIND 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏏

— john cowell💎 (@johncowell67) July 25, 2025

Instead of venting out on Anshul Kambhoj, please wake up Bumrah and Siraj. The senior bowlers are missing their line and lengths and the captain has forgotten that Washi is in the team. POOR POOR STRATEGY… #ENGvIND

— Kaushik Arunagiri (@ka_kaushik) July 25, 2025

#ShubmanGill is a worse captain than I thought he would be ! Sorry but not sorry ! #ENGvIND 😒

— 🇮🇳🇦🇺ಮಹೇಶ|Mahesh (@bombaatbanavar) July 25, 2025

Fast bowler bowling at 130 Kph. What a joke. #ENGvIND

— Naveen (@_naveenish) July 25, 2025

BUMRAH IS SO OVERRATED….
there are better bowlers available in India who were not given a chance.

— Vedic Naruto (@Madheal0) July 25, 2025

Siraj when team need him the most : pic.twitter.com/eZS3DsICpM

— 𝗬𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿 (@ImYorker93) July 25, 2025

Gautam Gambhir 🤡 #INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/mNCBbYfDQr

— 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁 (@DilSeMemes) July 25, 2025

Gautam Gambhir is about to lose 9 tests out of 12 games with 3 consecutive series losses including 0-3 hall of fame loss vs NZ at home. This kind of shameless performance has not seen in Indian Cricket in last 30 years.

If Gautam Gambhir doesn’t sacked then shame is upon BCCI.

— Rajiv (@Rajiv1841) July 25, 2025

I am a huge admirer of batting depth..but thats in limited overs cricket. In Test cricket you need specialists. After failing to defend 371 in Leeds, India should have realized the importance of playing Kuldeep Yadav.

GG and Shubman Gill need some grilling questions. #INDvsENG

— Anuj Nitin Prabhu (@APTalksCricket) July 25, 2025

Shubman Gill as a test captain is like former Australian test captain Tim Paine. Both of them stands for and defends their players when required, but lack good captaincy skills and do not get desired results in terms of match outcome. #ENGvIND

— Sudipto (@scrmbldegy) July 25, 2025

England 332-2

Bumrah, Kamoj, Siraj to England Batsman #ENGvIND #INDvsENGTest pic.twitter.com/t6lD6Qvga6

— Touseef Malik (@Touseef493GB) July 25, 2025

Have some shame to compare this average dude with Legends of the game.#ENGvIND #Bumrah pic.twitter.com/UJ8mNLf1KW

— P.E.R.R.Y (@PerryCric) July 25, 2025

Also WATCH: No-ball drama favours Ravindra Jadeja as KL Rahul grabs a blinder to dismiss Zak Crawley in Manchester Test

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