India lost the Lord's Test from a position of strength, but instead of introspecting on the defeat, the narrative shifted to how India showed great fight to get close to the win. India would have been delighted with a 193-run chase at Lord's, but the batting collapsed and they were soon tottering at 112-8. Then came the fightback, with Ravindra Jadeja at the forefront. The left-hander stitched a handy 35 partnership with Jasprit Bumrah, who played over 50 deliveries, and added 23 runs with Mohammed Siraj.

Just as India got dangerously close to the target, Siraj was dismissed by Shoaib Bashir and India lost by 22 runs. Before the tailender was dismissed, he had already played 29 deliveries. Meanwhile, Jadeja was left stranded at 61 in 181 balls. Jadeja earned huge praise for his gritty knock and how he got India close, but many also felt that the southpaw missed a trick by hanging around for too long. After all, he was batting with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, and one can't expect them to bat a session or two. Jadeja kept on playing the overs and taking singles on the fourth or fifth ball of the over to retain strike.

Former India cricketer Balwinder Singh Sandhu feels that Jadeja made a mistake by not going after big shots when the field was up to stop him from taking a single. Sandhu said Bumrah showed great defence, and had Jadeja trusted him a bit more, the result could have been different. Sandu added that the fear of failure got the better of Jadeja at Lord's.

“Coming to the final moments, Ravindra Jadeja is someone I’ve known since his U-19 days at the National Cricket Academy. Even back then, he showed maturity beyond his age. He’s a smart cricketer, calm under pressure, but this time, maybe the fear of failing, or the pressure of not trusting the tail, got the better of him,” Former India cricketer Balwinder Singh Sandhu in his Mid-Day column.

“If only he had trusted Jasprit Bumrah a bit more – especially when Bumrah was defending so well – and resisted taking that single off the fourth ball to retain strike. Had he backed himself to finish it in those last two balls, with the field up, it was a perfect moment to go for the boundary,” he added.

India dominated the Lord's Test, just like the first Test at Leeds, but failure to seize the crunch moments cost them the game. As things stand, they trail England 2-1 and face a must-win situation in the final two Tests.

Pujara Sides With Jadeja

While Sandhu felt Jadeja should have gone after the big shots, Pujara backed him, saying that playing big shots wasn't easy against the soft ball. He added that Jadeja might have thought that the tailenders were batting well, and he would try big shots once India got closer to the target.

“He couldn’t have scored faster on that track. I felt that it was because the ball was soft, and the pitch was on the slower side. I guess, Jadeja would have thought that the tailenders were batting well and the team was getting close to the total. And once they were a little closer he would have taken his chances. I thought he was batting well. It was very difficult to score runs on that pitch,” Pujara told Indian Express.

The contrasting opinions from Sandhu and Pujara leave the debate open — was Jadeja’s approach a case of smart calculation or excessive caution? The answer, perhaps, lies in how each reader interprets those final tense moments at Lord’s.