After failing to even near the 150-mark in either innings of their innings-and-159-run-defeat at Lord’s, they reached 307/6 at stumps after being put in. Sanjay Bangar, India’s assistant coach, was pleased with the display and credited the batsmen for making minor technical adjustments and displaying greater discipline.

“Certain adjustments were made by some of the batsmen. They were playing a lot later, lot of batsmen used some shots square of the wicket and overall I think the discipline was far, far better,” Bangar explained.

“The most important thing was the opening partnership was according to our expectation. In the previous two Tests, we were losing two or three wickets inside the first 15 overs. Because of that the middle order was walking in early in difficult conditions. It was not just the start but also the way they were batting was good,” said Bangar.

“The way Shikhar made the changes to his batting, the way he reduced his bat speed, the way he played the ball later, these adjustments he made in the last six or seven days, he should get credit. KL Rahul, too, was playing on the back foot, he was reacting after the ball’s movement.

“These changes the batsmen have made make me hopeful for the rest of the series. With five more innings left, if our batsmen can play in the same way, their performance graph will carry on to improve.”