ENG vs IND 2025: 3 stunning similarities between India's defeat in 2025 Lord’s Test and 1999 Chennai Test vs Pakistan

The third Test between India and England at the home of cricket, Lord's, ebbed and flowed throughout the five days before a thrilling finish saw the visitors go down by 22 runs. The heartbreaking loss left India trailing 1-2 in the best-of-five series against the hosts.

Chasing only 193 for victory, India stuttered under pressure from the get-go before a defiant Ravindra Jadeja denied the inevitable. The finish brought back several painful memories for Indian fans, where the side failed to seal the deal from a dominant position.

However, one would be hard-pressed to find a more similar Test match to compare the Lord's encounter than the 1999 Chennai outing against Pakistan. Apart from India losing a heartbreaker, that Test 26 years back had stunning similarities to the India-England Lord's thriller.

Much to the dismay of Indian cricket fans, we look at three such similarities between the 2025 Lord's Test and the 1999 Chennai fixture.

#1 India coughed up similar run-chases on both occasions

Mohammad Siraj was distraught as India lost a thriller at Lord's [Credit: Getty]

The 1999 India-Pakistan Test saw slightly lower scores in the first innings compared to the pair of 387s in the Lord's Test. While Pakistan scored 238, India responded with 254, capturing a slender 16-run lead.

The visitors fared better with the bat in the second innings, finishing on 286 and setting India a target of 271. India faltered in the run chase despite a brilliant century from Sachin Tendulkar to be bowled out for 258, thereby losing by 12 runs.

Cut to the present, and India were set 193 for victory by England, but they folded for 170 despite a late charge from Jadeja to lose by 22 runs.

A botched final innings run-chase and a close margin of defeat connected both Tests, with each a painful ending for Indian fans.

#2 Identical final dismissal

If the flow of two Test matches being similar is a rare sight, the game-clinching dismissal also following the same pattern is almost too true to believe. Yet, the 2025 India-England and 1999 India-Pakistan saw two No. 11s fall in the same manner.

At Lord's, India's resistance ended when Mohammed Siraj played the perfect defense to off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, only to watch the ball trickle onto the stumps. It was a deja vu moment for Indian fans as 26 years earlier in Chennai, Javagal Srinath fell in a near-identical manner.

The former pacer, batting at No. 11, blocked a doosra from Saqlain Mushtaq, before the ball knocked the bail off the stump, ending India's pursuit of 271. In both instances, the batter stood in disbelief as the fielding team performed wild celebrations.

#3 Contrasting performances from opposite skippers

Ben Stokes got the better of Shubman Gill in the Lord's Test [Credit: Getty]

A more subtle similarity between the two Tests was the polar opposite performances between the winning and losing captains. After two ground-breaking performances in the opening two Tests, Indian skipper Shubman Gill endured a poor outing at Lord's.

The right-hander scored only 22 runs across the two innings as India lost a humdinger. Meanwhile, England captain Ben Stokes broke out of a form slump with the bat, scoring 77 crucial runs across the two innings.

He also bowled extended spells in both innings, finishing with match figures of 5/111.

Similarly, in the 1999 Chennai Test, Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin struggled with the bat in both innings, combining for only 18 runs. On the other hand, his opposite number, Wasim Akram, scored a crucial 38 in the first innings and picked up five wickets in Pakistan's victory.

While Tendulkar was the Player of the Match in India's 1999 defeat to their arch-rivals, skipper Stokes won the award in England's triumph at Lord's.