ENG vs IND 2025: 'Not bothered about what the opposition is thinking' - Rishabh Pant reacts to England's potential game plan alteration at Lord's

India vice-captain Rishabh Pant asserted that the tourists aren't worried about England altering their plans for the surface in the third Test, which takes place at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground, starting on Thursday, July 10. After the crushing 336-run defeat at Edgbaston, reports suggest that England could opt for a seamer-friendly surface at Lord's.

England have opted to play home Test matches on flat batting surfaces in the 'Bazball' era, under head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. India, however, have batted well on flat decks that were on offer at Headingley and in the second Test, with the match at Edgbaston seeing the visitors score more than 1000 runs across both innings.

Pant, who scored two centuries in the first Test at Headingley, said that India will focus on their own game plans and not think too much about what England have to offer. The initial pictures of the pitch at Lord's have shown a decent amount of grass being left by the curators.

"See, as a team, generally, what we plan is to play according to the conditions given to us. We don’t want to think about what the opposition is thinking...whether they are changing their plans or not. Whatever they’re doing, we’ll do our best and do better from there. Simple," said Pant in the pre-match press conference.

Pant stated that the Indian team will try their best to get 20 wickets for the second game in a row. The wicketkeeper-batter said that this is an opportunity for the youngsters in the side to showcase their potential, and the batters are showing promise in the absence of veterans like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who announced their retirements from the red-ball format in May.

"The discussion was that England will give us better wickets because the kind of cricket that they play. So for us, the mantra was to get 20 wickets on these batting-friendly wickets. That was already planned. Eventually, our batters have to step up because we don't have two of our senior players too. Like I said, it's an opportunity to step up and people are slowly doing that. Eventually, we might do even better as a team," said Pant.

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Jasprit Bumrah picked up a five-for in the first Test before being rested in the second. The talismanic seamer is set to return to the side for the third Test at Lord's. Pant praised the veteran pacer and explained how difficult it is to keep wickets when he is bowling.

"I think everything. I think how accurate he is, the way his mind works...I think he's just amazing, man. I think it's more difficult for the wicketkeeper behind the wicket than for the batsman, especially in England," said Pant.