The 3rd International Test match of India vs England series 2021 was played on 24-25 Feb 2021 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Indian seamer Ishant Sharma was honored by the President of India because of his 100th test match. India had included only two fast bowlers and England was all set with a single spinner. The match was going to be played with the pink ball and it helps the pacers more than the spinners. Both the captain came out to the middle for the toss and England captain, Joe Root won the toss and decided to bat first.
In the first inning of England, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley came on the crease to open and Ishant Sharma got the new ball in hand. Ishant Sharma did well in his first spell and got the first breakthrough for India. Dom Sibley for 0 was dismissed by him in the 2.3 overs and then Johny Bairstow was also sent back by Axar Patel. England had lost two quick wickets who contributed nothing. After the dismissal, the England captain came out to the middle to handle the situation but wickets were falling at regular intervals. England batsmen could not handle the Indian spinners and the entire team collapsed at the lowest score of 112 runs only in 48.4 overs. Axar Patel gave his best and took 6 wickets; Ravichandran Ashwin got 3 wickets in the inning. Zak Crawley was the only batsman who made 53 runs for his team but did not get enough support from other batsmen.
In the first inning of India, Rohit Sharma, and Shubman Gill came out to the middle to open and James Anderson got the new ball to open the attack. The Indian team also did not get a good start and had lost their first two wickets of Shubman Gill, and Cheteshwar Pujara at the score of 34 runs only. Then the Indian captain, Virat Kohli came to join Rohit Sharma and tried to handle the situation but could not stay longer and he was also sent back by Jack Leach at a total of 98 runs. No batsmen except Rohit Sharma could stay on the crease for a long time and lost their wickets. The whole team was demolished by England bowlers at the score of just 145 runs. Rohit Sharma tried well and contributed 66 runs for his team. Joe Root gave an excellent performance with the ball and got 5 wickets. Jack Leach also did a good job and took 4 wickets in the inning. India got the lead of 33 runs in the first inning.
England’s second inning started with Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley. Axar Patel got the responsibility to open the attack. Again, England got a poor start and lost their two wickets of Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow in the very first over of the inning. Both of them could not handle Axar’s spin attack and were dismissed by him. England’s flop show was continued and no batsmen could stay longer and the entire English batsmen were bowled out at the score of 81 runs. Indian bowlers performed very well especially Axar Patel with 5 wickets and Ravichandran Ashwin with 4 wickets in the second inning. India got the target of 49 runs to win the 3rd test match of India vs England bilateral series 2021.
In the second inning of India, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill came out to the middle to chase the target and Jack Leach got the new ball in hand to open the attack. The target was not very big so Indian batsmen did not get any hurdle to achieve the target. The India team had made 49 runs very comfortably in 7.4 overs only and won the match by 10 wickets and got a lead of 2-1 in the series. Ravi Chandran Ashwin completed his 400 test wickets in the 3rd test of Ind vs Eng series 2021.
India won the 3rd test match of the series by 10 wickets in hand and led the series by 2-1. Axar Patel was the Man of the Match.