Team playing as a unit and catching in slips

After the heavy defeat at England’s hands in Lord’s, the Indian team needed to get back as a unit and they did it in style. The batting unit that was looking a one-man show, came good in both innings as the openers shared valuable stands in both innings and Cheteshwar Pujara applied himself to carve out a patient 72.

Rahane came good in the first innings to stitch up a valuable partnership with Virat Kohli. Kohli, as usual, was on a different level altogether and scored 97 and 103 runs in the two innings of the Test match.

Bowling wise, it was too a very good effort by the senior bowlers in Mohammad Shami and Ishant Sharma to support the in-form Pandya in the first innings and Bumrah in second innings.

However, the biggest change came in the slips catching and in the keeping. Though Pant put down a hard one, his 7 catches in the match was a record in itself and he is definitely a talent to be groomed for the long term.

KL Rahul too picked 7 catches in the match and the overall catching was good in the slips by India. This gave a big boost for the bowlers, who knew that hard catches will also be taken easily and their efforts will be rewarded.