IND vs ENG Day 3 Weather Report and Pitch Report of Rajkot Test, 2024

India and England are currently locking horns with each other in the third match of the five-match IND vs ENG Test series. The match between the two teams commenced on 15th February (Thursday) at the newly renamed Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot. 

The game hangs evenly poised after the two days of play. Both the teams have played magnificent brand of cricket and with the ways things have panned out, things look set for an exciting finish. The match potentially is likely to go long for 5 days. 

India won the toss and opted to bat first. It was a dreadful start from them with the bat as they were left tottering at 33/3. But after that skipper Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja bailed the team out of trouble and put England on the backfoot with their sensational double-hundred runs partnership. 

They added 204 runs together and bailed the team out of trouble. While Rohit Sharma scored 131 runs, Ravindra Jadeja ended with a total of 112 runs. Their partnership put India in the dominating position. After that, Sarfaraz Khan played an innings of 63 runs. 

Dhruv Jurel (46) and Ravichandran Ashwin (37) played vital hands and powered India the total of a decent total. A late blitz by Jasprit Bumrah (26) powered India to a total of 445 runs. For England, Mark Wood was the pick of the bowlers with his figures of 4/114. 

England then were off to a powerful start in their innings. Zak Crawley (15) and Ben Duckett added 89 runs together and put India under tremendous pressure. Ollie Pope (39) chipped in as well with the vital hand but the hero of the day for the visitors was Duckett. 

Ben Duckett remained unbeaten at 133 and put the team in a dominating position. At stumps on Day 2, England were at 207/2 and are just 238 runs behind. 

IND vs ENG: Pitch Report and Weather Report for Day 3 

Speaking after the end of IND vs ENG Day 2, Ravichandran Ashwin provided an update on the pitch. He said that the pitch would get hard as the day progressed. He said that the first three days of the game would be good for the batters. Speaking to broadcasters, he explained: 

“The surfaces we’ve played on in this series have allowed the batters time on the first three days. Expect this pitch to get hard on Day 5. We need to exercise discipline, England have been in such positions before. I think the game is in the balance, they’re putting us under pressure but it’s important we stay composed and stay in the game.”

Ravichandran Ashwin’s statement hints that the pitch will be favoring batters on Day 3. This indicates that bowlers need to work hard on their lines and lengths. There was a slight rough created on the pitch and it might favour spinners on the back end of the day. 

Talking about the weather in Rajkot, it is expected to be a bright sunny day tomorrow (16th February). The temperature is expected to be 36° on Saturday and the humidity will be around 41% during the day. The cloud cover is expected to be very low and the precipitation is likely to be 0%. The weather report indicates that a full day of the game will be on the fray.