England vs India: Discussion points of Nottingham Test
India defeated England by 203 runs to seal the third Test match at Nottingham. With this win, India have pulled one back and trail England 1-2 in the 5-match series. Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah were superb with the ball as skipper, Virat Kohli shined in both innings, with the bat, to hand India a well deserved win. Here are the key discussion points.
Pandya revels as a bowling all-rounder
Pandya showed that he can become a trusted fourth bowler of this team outside the sub-continent. Kohli was forced to give him the ball with Ashwin going off the field due to a hip problem, and the all-rounder delivered. He got Joe Root off the first ball he bowled. He then got 4 more wickets to completely change the game.
Kohli's runs vital for India
At this moment, there is no stopping Kohli. The 29-year-old made sure he led from the front and scored 97 runs in the first innings. The 159-run stand with Ajinkya Rahane gave India the platform to post a decent total. After having missed out on a ton, he replied in a superb manner and hit 103 in the second. Kohli's 200 runs were instrumental.
Indian pacers led by example
Indian pacers were a notch better than England at Nottingham. They bowled more consistently and forced England batsmen to make mistakes. Ishant Sharma was terrific and got both openers back to the hut early on. Then comeback man, Jasprit Bumrah did a tremendous job against the lower middle-order and the tail. Once again, Indian bowlers picked up all the 20 wickets.
England need to draw inspiration from Buttler
England's poor batting, once again, haunted them. The hosts haven't been good enough with the bat since the 2017-18 Ashes. They should look up to Jos Buttler. He hit a counter-attacking 100 in the second innings. They should draw inspiration, from this knock, for the remainder of the series. The top three struggled to get going and couldn't lay the foundation.
KL Rahul leads India's slip catching prowess
KL Rahul deserves a special mention. The player was superb with his slip catching and held on to everything that came his way. Seven catches in the slip tells why Rahul played a major hand in helping India win as England continued to drop catches.
