Asked for the reason for not including Kuldeep, Gill said: “So the matches that we played prior to this, we had seen the wickets were not offering that much to the spinners. Whenever spinners came into bowl, we felt that we kind of had to go into defensive, whenever the fast bowlers were bowling, it felt like something was happening. And that was the thought process behind not bringing in extra spinner.”

But Gill went on admit that the pitch got slower as the game progressed. “With the fast bowlers, you obviously want to create pressure and see chances get created. Maybe in hindsight, looking at the wicket, I think it got a little bit slow. When we were bowling and when Axar bhai was bowling for us, it didn’t look like the wicket would get that slow, but when they came into bowl, it did look like the wicket got a bit slower as the game went on,” Gill said.

With Bumrah not available, the pace attack included Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna and the two rookies Prince Yadav and Gurnoor Brar. But none of them managed to trouble England’s top order as Ben Duckett (141) and Jacboth Bethell (91) put on 192 for the first wicket. And Gill admitted that the inexperience with the ball showed.

“Our bowling is a little thin on experience and I think we were put under the pump in this match and didn’t respond well. We didn’t start up well in the powerplay. We gave away too many loose balls and then we were always kind of chasing the game, trying to take wickets, create something — that shouldn’t happen for us. And then the game was already kind of ahead from us and then the last few overs we gave 90 runs, that is where it all went down. It (momentum) completely shifted, we were sort of looking at maybe 340-350 at one point and then they got close to 390 (387). And chasing 390, no matter what surface you’re batting in, it’s never easy,” Gill lamented.

Once they weathered that phase, the pair took control. Rohit broke the shackles with trademark pulls and scoops, while Gill relied on elegant drives through the covers and proactive footwork against spin.

They rotated strike consistently, punished loose deliveries and brought up their 100-run stand in the 19th over, keeping the required rate within reach. Gill’s 77 and Rohit’s composed innings had India mirroring England’s start, but the skipper’s dismissal to Adil Rashid ended a 147-run partnership.

A few overs after the skipper’s dismissal, Rohit brought up his 34th ODI hundred, continuing the pattern of saving his best for the final game of a series. After quiet scores in the first two ODIs and speculation over his future, his hundred with a four off Rashid made him the first Indian to score an ODI ton at Lord’s.

Gill’s dismissal brought Virat Kohli to the middle with a platform laid for him to make a defining score.

He began fluently but with an escalating run rate, needed to up the ante further. In that pursuit, he chewed up a few more dot balls than he would have liked. It meant Rohit needed to keep looking for boundaries.

The 39-year-old, despite cramping, took it upon himself to clear the boundary and, after some lusty blows, fell trying to go for one shot too many, bowled by Jacob Bethell for an excellent 138.

That left the onus on Kohli to take India home. With 121 runs needed in the last 10 overs, he continued to struggle for timing, but in the 42nd over bowled by Will Jacks produced two sixes to reignite hoped of turning things around.

But the match turned decisively in England’s favour in the 44th over when Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer both fell to Sam Curran’s change of pace, and when Kohli fell to the same bowler in the 46th over for 74, it meant curtains for India.

Earlier, on a placid surface under blue skies, India’s bowling attack sans Jasprit Bumrah was taken to the cleaners. Duckett’s 141 off 135 balls and Bethell’s 92 laid the platform for a mammoth score.

Bumrah’s absence left a big void in the attack, but it also offered the rest of the bowling unit an opportunity to deliver. None of them did.

Arshdeep Singh found some early movement but lacked consistency. Whenever he pitched the ball in the right area, he troubled Duckett. But those deliveries were followed by overpitched half-volleys or balls drifting onto the pads. He finished with 0/72 from his 10 overs.

Duckett and Bethell recognised India’s inconsistency early. They did not force the issue against good deliveries. Instead, they waited patiently for anything too straight or too full, cashing in whenever India missed their lengths. There was never any sustained pressure put on them, which allowed both left-handers to settle into the innings.

Prince Yadav, introduced before the end of the first Powerplay, also struggled. He was wayward, conceding several wides, and could not find his lines or lengths consistently. Gurnoor Brar, introduced later, had perhaps the most testing day of his career so far, finishing with 0/97 in 10 overs.

Prasidh Krishna recovered after an expensive start, dismissing Bethell and Harry Brook, but leaked runs at the death, including two sixes to Jos Buttler, ending with 2/69 from 10 overs.

Gill’s options were limited. India had just five specialist bowlers and only one spinner in Axar Patel,
who conceded 61 runs from his 10 overs. Joe Root made an unbeaten 74 off 48 balls, but it was Jos Buttler’s cameo of 41 runs in 13 balls that propelled England to a score that proved too much for India.

Brief Scores: England 387/3 in 50 overs (Ben Duckett 141, Jacob Bethell 92, Joe Root 74 not out; Prasidh Krishna 2/69) beat India 360/7 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 138, Shubman Gill 77, Virat Kohli 74; Sam Curran 4/75) by 27 runs

Jasprit Bumrah’s absence due to an impact injury on his left knee was certainly a blow for India and that proved to be telling for the visitors.

The four-pronged pace attack comprising Prasidh Krishna (2/69 in 10 overs), Arshdeep Singh (0/72 in 10 overs), Prince Yadav (1/79 on 10 overs) and Gurnoor Brar (0/97 in 10 overs), with a cumulative experience of 51 ODIs, lacked both skill and experience against an in-form batting line-up.

Duckett and Bethell (91 off 93 balls) were fantastic in terms of planning and execution. The batting powerplay of first 10 overs yielded 58 runs but the wheels came off between overs 11 to 30 when they literally ran the bowlers ragged.

With head coach Gautam Gambhir using Kuldeep Yadav in only 38 games out of a total 103 matches (across three formats) since his appointment, the lack of a second spinner save Axar Patel (0/61 in 10 overs) did hurt India.

While Duckett hit 18 boundaries in all apart from a six, Bethell, who looked comparatively more fluent at the onset, hit 11 fours and a six, before being holed out in the deep off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling.

Joe Root (74 no off 48 balls) continued his golden run of form with another half-century — his third in three games — to take the total past 350-run mark. Jos Buttler (41 no off 13 balls) also joined in the fun as Brar got a harsh lesson in international cricket, going for almost 100 runs.

At the onset, it didn’t help matters that rookie Prince, bowling up the famous Lord’s slope, struggled with his length as Bethell pulled him for a six over deep mid-wicket and then slapped him in the gap between deep mid-wicket and mid-on for a boundary.

The rusty Arshdeep Singh didn’t hold his line while Prasidh Krishna, despite beating Bethell’s bat on a number of occasions, also bowled the odd loose delivery.

However, Bethell did well to complete his half-century off 51 balls while England reached the team total of 100 by the 16th over. By that time, Indian bowlers have already conceded 15 boundaries and the lines were horribly wrong, allowing the opening pair to nicely settle into a rhythm. In all, they conceded 42 boundaries and six sixes.

It also established the fact that all the other Indian pacers look good when the brilliant Bumrah is at work at one end and that effectiveness vanishes once he is absent. One saw that in the T20Is and now in ODIs too.