5 takeaways from India's warm-up match against Essex

India's three-day warm-up match against Essex came to a close on Friday with the visitors ending the day at 89 for 2 with KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane unbeaten on 36 and 19 respectively.

Earlier in the day, the Indians had taken a 36-run lead thanks to some exceptional bowling from Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma, who ensured that the hosts were bowled out for 359, taking figures of four for 35 and three for 59 respectively.

Whether the conditions didn't assist them or if Indian deliberately chose not to use them can't be said, but the troika of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav delivered a combined total of 11 overs in the innings, thereby raising a lack of clarity on which pairing would take the field in the opening Test at Edgbaston starting on Wednesday.

That and a few other aspects were the major talking points in India's drawn-out affair at Chelmsford, which concluded on Friday:

Rishabh Pant sparkles early

Will Pant find his way into the Test team during the course of this series?

Ahead of veterans like Parthiv Patel, the Indian team management decided to back 20-year-old Delhi wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant as the backup for the first choice Dinesh Karthik for the first three Test matches.

Sent out to bat at Number 11, the left-hander impressed everyone watching with a quickfire 34 off 26 balls with six boundaries in them and was the last man unbeaten as India were bowled out for 395 runs in their first innings.

It is yet unclear over whether Pant would play a part in the series, but going by Virat Kohli's captaincy decisions in recent times, it would not come as a surprise if he finds a way to include the left-hander if the situation does arise.

Perhaps, a slot at the top of the order to open with Murali Vijay could be the way forward.

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