IND vs ENG, 5th test: India 416 and 125 for 3 (Pujara 50*, Pant 30*) lead England 284 (Bairstow 106, Billings 36, Siraj 4-66, Bumrah 3-68) by 257 runs.

The morning started with India ascending, leading by 332 with England five down. They would have been careful about Bairstow and Stokes, nonetheless, a short-term batting pair that is basically as possible as any to turn what is happening like this on its head.

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However it was India who took control over the Edgbaston Test throughout the span of a captivating third day. Their quicks, drove by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, bowled England out for 284 to get a first-innings lead of 132, and by stumps, this lead had developed to 257, with seven wickets still close by, as Cheteshwar Pujara marked his comeback with an unshakable, unbeaten third-innings 50 years.

After both first innings flew along at more than four-and-a-half runs per over, India’s second innings followed an undeniably more customary Test-match pattern as they went to stumps at 125 for 3 after 45 overs. This was down by and large to Pujara’s presence at the crease. Obviously, however consistently he spent out there was valuable to India’s push to bat England out of the game. Notwithstanding two or three brazen minutes, he looked completely secure – safer with all due respect, conceivably, than anytime since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

In this Test match, it has been clear that Pujara has switched his set-around at the crease to get more side-on, with his front shoulder highlighting the bowler as opposed to towards mid-on similar to the case during the initial four Tests of this series in 2021. 

On Sunday, this seemed to allow him to adjust more easily to late away movement than he has done lately. Where he would occasionally get squared up while playing the underlying point – a typical example in a ton of his excusals in Australia and England last year – he was by all accounts ready to play the ball later here, and change the point of his bat face to guard toward the development.

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His leaving was brimming with sureness as well, even against approaching balls in the direct external off stump, against Stuart Broad specifically. The main time he got into a knot while leaving was when Ben Stokes bowled one into him, late, to strike him on the front cushion. An uproarious yell was turned down, and England’s survey called an umpire back decision, with ball-following recommending the ball would have proceeded to cut the external edge of off stump.

This second came not long after Stokes had delivered the chunk of the innings, which lifted unplayably to kiss Virat Kohli’s glove, to end a 32-run third-wicket partnership. Getting Pujara out then might have put India – who by then drove by 218 – under a considerable amount of tension. As it ended up, Pujara and the naughty Rishabh Pant saw out the remainder of the night’s play, putting on a whole 50-run stand for the fourth wicket.

With England six down nevertheless 175 behind, India scented a speedy completion to the innings, and they to a great extent accomplished this, as Siraj skipped out Broad, bowled Billings off within edge, and afterward had Matthew Potts got at second slip to finish an odd kind of four-wicket pull.

Siraj was costly, yielding 66 in 11.3 overs, and compromised the hitters undeniably less reliably than Bumrah or Shami, yet every bowler enjoys the occasional day when they are nowhere near their best yet end up with a big haul. The last wicket came in disputable conditions as well, with Shreyas Iyer getting the slim chance on the second grab, having first scooped it up from extremely near the turf – close enough that the choice might have gone the player’s way had the delicate sign been not out as opposed to out.