India vs England | Misfiring top order will be tasked before the fourth Test, says Joe Root

England's hopes of winning the Test and taking an unassailable lead in the series had practically disappeared when they were dismissed for 161 in their first innings of the third Test. Later on, facing a notional target of 521 in the second innings, England had slipped to 62 for 4, before Buttler and Stokes showed the application to bat through 57 overs and give the scorecard a measure of respectability. 

England's misfiring top order will be tasked with turning things around in the week before the fourth Test starts in Southampton, with the captain highlighting the example shown by Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes at Trent Bridge. Buttler scored his maiden Test hundred during a 169-run partnership but it was not enough to prevent England falling to a heavy defeat on the fifth morning, leaving them 2-1 up against India with two Tests to play.

“I think it's fair to say we very much underperformed in that innings. You look at the second innings, that partnership between Jos and Ben, I think that's a real lesson to our side of how to play Test match cricket. Not the fact that they scored at a slow rate or looked slightly more defensively-minded but the way they adapted to the situation, the way they built that partnership and looked very clear about how they were going to score runs. For us that's a really nice thing to see and to learn from and we have to look at that, adapt our own games individually and make sure that when we turn up to Southampton we give ourselves the best chance of getting scores over 400, and do it in the first innings, and try and apply that scoreboard pressure that is so important in Test cricket," Root said to Sky Sports in a post-match interview.

"If you look at this series and some of the conditions we've played in it's been very challenging for the top order - and that's on both sides. It's very easy to look past that, we've got to be quite realistic about things, we've got two very good players at the top of the order. We have got time now to go away and look at individually how we're going to play in these conditions, find our own methods - that's not just those two guys, I think that's the whole batting group, and I'm sure we'll come back with a strong response,” the English skipper added.

After three Tests against India, only Root among the top four has made a half-century, with openers Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings averaging 16.60 and 18.00 respectively. In eight Tests in 2018, England have not had a centurion at higher than No. 6 in the order. Cook could yet miss the Southampton Test to attend the birth of his third child, but Root defended the openers and said it was up to the batting group as a whole to put bigger totals on the board.

England may need to juggle their batting anyway for the fourth Test, with Jonny Bairstow's fractured finger putting him in doubt - though Root did not rule out the possibility of him relinquishing the wicketkeeping gloves and playing as a specialist batsman.

“It's very early days, we'll have to see how that swelling goes down, see how he pulls up. We have got time on our side, over the next couple of days we'll have a clearer idea of where he's at, I'm sure he'll be desperate to play, he's in fine form and you want guys like him in your side, so it would be great if he pulls up well,” Root concluded.