LONDON: India have learnt their lessons against England’s in-form captain Joe Root and are determined not to give him freebies early in his knock, bowling coach Bharat Arun said on the eve of the fourth Test at Oval from Thursday.

Root smashed three centuries in as many Tests and is comfortably the leading scorer in the five-test series which remains level at 1-1.

The England skipper has looked in the form of his life, racking up six test centuries this year and becoming the top-ranked test batsman.

Arun agreed to the suggestion that the otherwise tidy Indian bowlers might have fed an in-form batsman too many loose deliveries early in his knock to make things easy for him.

“You hit the nail on the head,” the former India bowler told a virtual news conference on Wednesday. “We have given him pretty fast starts, and obviously we looked deep into those areas, and we look to stem those.”

In contrast, India’s own batting was dismal in the third Test at Headingley, where the tourists were shot out for 78 en route to an innings defeat.

Arun said their bowlers had time and again defended low totals but were bound to fail occasionally.

“The biggest challenge for the bowlers is to defend low scores and they’ve done it in the past. I don’t think it’s fair to pull up the bowlers if they have not done it on one occasion.”

Arun said their Headingley capitulation was an aberration and the team knew how to bounce back from such comprehensive defeats. India have added seamer Prasidh Krishna to their squad but Arun said it was merely a precaution, considering the workload on the frontline bowlers.

England have named all-rounder Moeen Ali as the vice-captain in the absence of wicket-keeper Jos Buttler who misses the match to attend the birth of his second child.

Moeen said his appointment was an example of the ‘beauty of sport’ after he was not even in the squad at the start of the series.

“It sounds amazing,” Moeen told reporters on Wednesday. “Obviously to captain or vice-captain England in any form is huge and I’m very excited. I’m obviously not hoping for Joe to go off the field but if he does go off, I’m looking forward to the role.”

Meanwhile, Root replaced New Zealand counterpart Kane Williamson as the top-ranked Test batter on Wednesday after a gap of six years after starting the current series against India in fifth.

The 30-year-old is the leading scorer in the series with 507 runs from five innings and has registered six Test hundreds this year.

Australia run-machine Steve Smith is third in the latest official rankings, ahead of compatriot Marnus Labuschagne.

India opener Rohit Sharma completes the top five, overtaking his captain Kohli, who has had a subdued series in England.

England seamer James Anderson entered the top five in the Test bowling rankings after his consistent performance against India.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2021