Murali Vijay, who started off so well the last time, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara looked in decent touch till that third-Test crash. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni held the lower-order with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami chipping in with fifties to give the totals a winnable look in the first two Tests. Remember Virat Kohli was a total flop in the series, raising question marks over his technique and temperament.
To his credit, Kohli worked on his game and in four years he is leading the charge. But now the others are not pulling their weight, making the team selection a difficult proposition. To add to their woes the former players, some of them are in England, are pulling in different directions.
Now the tour selection committee may be forced to bring back Shikhar Dhawan to partner another out-of-form Vijay and it doesn't know what to do with Lokesh Rahul. In its desperation, it might toy with the idea of playing Karun Nair to remind the Englishmen that here's the guy who has scored a triple century against them when they last played them in India. Who will he replace, Pujara or Rahane. It's all so confusing to even think.
In that frustration India might throw young Rishab Pant into the deep end of the pool, but the only worry is whether he should play as a batsman or also keep wickets. It is not possible to play both him and Dinesh Karthik.
Karthik had a couple of issues while judging the catches going to the first slip, but the main issue with him is his loss of batting form, two ducks in four innings, after looking so good in the warm-up game.
Mercifully, the bowling is not creating a headache. Jaspit Bumrah is bowling fit and he should come in place of Kuldeep Yadav to join Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami. In hindsight, Ravi Shastri admitted that playing Kuldeep was an error judgment.
Any large-scale changes will leave the team in disarray at a time it should be thinking and planning to stage a comeback. It cannot be a case of trying out people just because the chosen ones have failed in two Tests.
Ideally, the experience and class should be considered to merit their selection, hoping they will come good instead of indulging in lottery of playing those chosen as back-up men.
England's confidence is so high, captain Joe Root has decided to drop Sam Curran to accommodate Ben Stokes who is back after missing the second Test as he was attending a court hearing for fracas he was involved in Bristol last Septemebr. He was not found guilty of affray on Tuesday and he has rejoined the squad.
Tren Bridge is in Stuart Broad's home Nottingham and here the pacemen reveled, but don't forget India won here byh seven wickets in 2007, Zaheer Khan taking nine wickets.
India, choosing to bowl, dismissed England for 198 and then Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman scoring 50s in a total of 481 in reply to leave England with little chance.
If only that Test can inspire the Indians!
