Sunil Gavaskar refuses to mince words after India fail to get the job done at Lord's: 'Had Ravindra Jadeja tried to…'

Sunil Gavaskar questioned Ravindra Jadeja’s cautious 61*, suggesting he should’ve attacked Joe Root or Shoaib Bashir earlier.

Ravindra Jadeja was India's lone hope of a miracle at Lord's after Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer triggered another collapse early on Day 5, leaving the visitors eight down in their chase of 193. The all-rounder mounted a valiant resistance alongside No. 10 Jasprit Bumrah and last man Mohammed Siraj, during which he recorded the slowest fifty of his Test career.

Ravindra Jadeja remained unbeaten in 61 off 181

Jadeja's presence deeply frustrated England, who had expected to wrap up the game within the first session. He cut the deficit down to just 23 runs before a cruel stroke of luck—Shoaib Bashir's delivery trickling onto Siraj's stumps—finally ended India's brave resistance.

Speaking to Sony Sports, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar felt India lacked a steady partnership of 60 to 70 runs, which cost them the match. However, he also questioned the logic behind Jadeja's cautious approach in the chase, where the batter scored an unbeaten 61 off 181.

"A partnership of 60-70 would have made a difference. India never got that. You could say that Jadeja could have taken the odd chance and not necessarily the aerial route when Joe Root and Shoaib Bashir was bowling. But full marks to him (Jadeja)," he said.

Later, speaking to Sports Tak, the India legend explained that when Bashir and Root were bowling against India, Jadeja could have taken a chance scoring a boundary or a six, especially with Ben Stokes having stationed himself at mid-off.

"I though when Bashir came to bowl, Jadeja could have taken a chance. The second time was when Bumrah was batting with him, because Stokes was fielding inside the circle at mid-off. So he could have scored a boundary there, especially when Joe Root was bowling. Later when Siraj came to bat, Stokes stationed himself near the boundary rope," he said.

Chasing 193 for victory, Jadeja and Bumrah scored 35 runs in 22 overs for the ninth wicket. Then Jadeja and Siraj added 23 in 13 overs. However, the latter fell to Shoaib Bashir when he played defensively to the off-spinner only for the ball to spin back and just dislodge the leg bail to leave India 170 all out.

England head to Manchester, the venue for the fourth Test, with a 2-1 lead in the series. They had earlier won the opener in Leeds last month by five wickets, before losing by 336 runs in Birmingham.