England vs India, Third Test, 2018: 3 things that came good for India
India's performance in the Lord's Test was nothing short of poor. If Lord's Test was to be taken as a yardstick for the rest of the series, India could have only gone from bad to worse. But come Day 3 of the Nottingham Test, India are right on top of England. They finally seem to have a measure of the English bowlers in a do-or-die battle. India hold all the aces at the moment and from now on, it is their game to lose.
Something different had to happen for an Indian comeback in this series. India have ticked all the boxes as far as this Test is concerned but we will have a look at the three most important factors that came good for India unlike the Lord's Ttest, where they were completely outplayed.
#3 Openers laying a platform
This was one of the major problems for India, particularly in overseas Tests, which hampered them from putting up a good total on the board. The more time the openers stay in the middle, the more runs they will manage which will enable them to lay a solid platform for the rest of the batters to follow.
In Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul, India found a good opening combination which not only played out the new ball without much fuss but also scored runs at a rapid rate. Dhawan's 35, Rahul's 23 and their valuable 60 runs partnership brought back the confidence in the Indian change room that English bowling attack could be tackled by sustained determination.
Kohli and Rahane, the two senior members of the batting lineup, piled on the runs from then on. Both were extremely unlucky to miss out on superb hundreds but by the time they departed, the job was certainly done for India. For the first time in this series, India managed a wicketless session with the bat and by the end of Day 1, India had posted a good score of 300+ on the board.
One could see that the confidence was well and truly restored. If there 159 runs partnership was special, the 60 runs opening stand of Dhawan and Rahul was impressive as well. This factor was one of the most important turnarounds for India from the Lord's Test, where the opening partnership did not even open its account.