||Desk Report||

After having taken six wickets in the final session of the first day, the Indian bowling attack disappointed thoroughly in the opening session of day 2.

With only three wickets to bowl out the English team, the Indian bowlers employed a defensive tactic of sorts and leaked regular singles, thereby losing the strong control that they had managed over the game.

Jos Buttler played another crucial knock, scoring 89 runs as England cruised to 332 runs. Ravindra Jadeja claimed four wickets, and thus justified his selection ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin.

The Indian batting innings started off in a disappointing note, with Shikhar Dhawan yet again falling prey to a good delivery from Stuart Broad. Cheteshwar Pujara demonstrated some resilience, but was later undone by James Anderson in the final session. Anderson removed Ajinkya Rahane with a brilliant delivery too, and the onus was now on Virat Kohli to steady the ship.

 At 49 runs though, Kohli edged Ben Stokes’ delivery to Joe Root, and accordingly the pillar of Indian batting fell down in crumbles. Rishabh Pant failed to make use of this opportunity too, as Stokes’ final spell completely upturned the overall proceedings of the game.

Currently, Hanuma Vihari and Ravindra Jadeja are unbeaten at stumps, as India still trail the hosts by 158 runs currently.

The Indian team, and the management should take a closer look in this series, as the team again looks to have let the game slip out of their hands after being in total control yesterday.