India under the cosh, England's away excellence and the cult of Rishabh Pant... TEST MATCH TALKING POINTS

SAM MORSHEAD runs down the action on day three in Chennai as England put themselves in a strong position against India

India v England: 1st Test scorecard

Chennai (day three of five): England 578, India 257-6 - India, with four first-innings wickets in hand, trail England by 221 runs

A new feeling for India

The feeling of being second best in their own backyard has become totally alien to India, so dominant has their form been in home Test series over the past decade.

But halfway through this match, the mettle of Virat Kohli’s men was being truly challenged, in a way it has not since Australia’s visit in 2017.

England’s batting had laid the platform on days one and two but to have any chance of winning in India every department needed to fire - on two occasions on the 2016/17 tour they racked up first-innings scores in excess of 400 only to lose by an innings.

Then, India replied to their guests with totals of 631 and 759 for 7. This time, things were a little different.

The way in which England built a strategy to exert pressure on their hosts either side of lunch on Sunday was thoroughly impressive.

In the overs before the interval, Root threw his big guns at Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli - Jimmy Anderson pinned down one end, exploring what little swing was on offer at the Chepauk, while Jofra Archer peppered the Indian pair. 

Ben Stokes was employed for a three-over burst, with the creation of rough outside the right-hander’s off stump no doubt in his captain’s mind, and by the time 11.30am ticked around, India would have known they were in for a fight.

After the break, England were less aggressive and much more tactical - offer little, wait for the mistake.  

It worked.

A scour of social media in the days prior to the start of this Test clearly illustrated the low esteem in which the Indian public held England’s spin options - “Kohli will hit Bess everywhere”, “India will be quaking at Bess and Leach” and so on and so forth.

There would have been a lot of surprised faces, then, when Bess drew Kohli to play down the wrong line and thick-edge to Ollie Pope at short leg - the first time he had been dismissed by an offspinner in a home Test for three and a half years.

And that surprise would have become shock when, five balls later, Ajinkya Rahane drilled the offspinner to Root, diving spectacularly to his left at cover.

By drinks an hour after lunch, India had squeezed just 14 runs out of 14 overs, for the loss of their captain and vice-captain.

England - this England, stacked with inexperience - were not only competing, they were on top. 

It might not last, but it was another encouraging example of this England side finding their best form away from home under captain Root.

^{Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant put on 119 on Sunday}

Pant attack

Rishabh Pant cannot resist the urge to go after left-arm spinners. 

Of his first 39 balls from orthodox slow left arm in Tests, the wicketkeeper hit six for six. And here, with his team 500 runs behind and four wickets down on the third afternoon, Pant saw counter-attacking as the perfect option.

Even with five men out on the boundary, he was not perturbed. 

Jack Leach’s first four overs went for 41 runs, as Pant refused to allow the Somerset spinner to make use of the rough outside his off stump. 

He reached his half-century in 40 balls, and continued to plough his merry way after tea, stepping out of his crease with bombastic authority and pillorying Leach to all corners of the Chepauk.

At the other end, in strict contrast, Cheteshwar Pujara floated on serenely. No one in world cricket averages more when using his feet to the spinners than Pujara, and he appeared to be in total control as he maneuvered his way past fifty for the third time in four Test innings.

For as long as he and Pant were busy playing ‘good cop, mad cop’ in their fifth-wicket stand of 119 in 24 overs, so India appeared to be regaining some sense of normal order.

It took a freak dismissal to dislodge the Pujara - caught by Rory Burns at midwicket via Ollie Pope’s shoulder, off a Dom Bess half-tracker - yet Pant still showed no sign of mellowing.

Leach was paddle-scooped to the fine leg boundary for four and then hauled over wide midwicket for yet another six before Washington Sundar had even had time to take guard at each end. 

For a brief period it seemed as if Kapil Dev’s record for the fastest Test century in matches between India and England (86 balls) was under threat, but with Leach out of the attack Pant found his scoring areas much more limited and, frustrations building, he took one risk too many.

Leach, in a moment of pure cricketing catharsis, claimed the catch. Pant was dismissed for 91 - his fourth Test score between 90 and 99 in 28 innings. He had been at the crease for little more than two hours, and when he left India were still more than 350 runs behind. 

The merits of his combative, fearless approach can be debated to death, but he is certainly no bad thing for the spectacle of Test cricket. 

Wooah… Jimmy, Jimmy!

Once upon a time, you would not expect your veteran seamer to contribute much more than an outstretched boot on the boundary rope.

Times have changed, though, and that was perfectly illustrated by Jimmy Anderson’s terrific catch to get rid of Shubman Gill on day three in Chennai.

At 38 years old and with nearly 34,000 deliveries in Test cricket behind him, Anderson could be forgiven for grazing at fine leg between overs.

But he continues to hold himself to high standards in the field, as was evident in Sri Lanka when he castigated himself for a pair of fumbles in the second Test, and here he leapt to his left to claim a tumbling low catch at mid-on.

It is testament both to the work of successive fielding coaches in the England setup - Richard Halsall, Carl Hopkinson and Paul Collingwood among them - and to Anderson’s levels of fitness and athleticism that a bowler approaching 40 years of age is considered an asset to his team in the field.

In India, where chances of wickets are often sparse, every special moment like this counts double.

^{Rishabh Pant scoop sweeps Jack Leach}

Spin kings

England have rarely played spin better than they did in their first innings in Chennai.

The tourists accumulated a total of 429 runs against the variations of Ravichandran Ashwin, Shahbaz Nadeem, Washington Sundar and Rohit Sharma, with all bar Ashwin being taken at a rate of 3.5 per over or better.

Not since 1974 had England scored more runs off spin in a single innings. That is quite a statistic.

They did so in vastly different ways - the patience and obduracy of Dom Sibley, the relentless sweeps of Joe Root, and the brutal counter-attacking of Ben Stokes - and did not let the Indian tweakers settle into any kind of rhythm.

The blunting of Ashwin, who while more economic than his teammates was far from his devastating best, was particularly impressive.

On his home ground in Chennai, he now averages 88.25 with the ball in two matches against England. His only other Test at the venue, against Australia, saw him return 12 wickets in the match.

It bodes well for Root and Co on a long and trying tour.

Images courtesy of BCCI

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