What a pleasure it is to watch this England team. The batting approach is so refreshing and some of the shots are simply breathtaking. The Indian batting in contrast, while very good in patches, meanders along at other times and the inability of making the starts that the batters are getting convert into big runs, is costing the team at least 150 runs in every innings. The boundaries keep flowing from the English batters, bats and the Indian bowlers look perplexed as to how to counter it.

Virat Kohli not being available, KL Rahul’s injury woes resurfacing and the indifferent form of the skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill at the start of the series, may well have forced the curators to prepare firmer pitches than on earlier occasions, where the turn was much more and the ball came on to the bat a bit slowly. The pitches for the three Tests seen so far have had a lot more carry and a bit more bounce too. The English batters have relished that and been able to play a lot more freely. More crucially, the approach has been different as there’s hardly any poking and prodding with hard hands as was seen on earlier tours.