England and India reached the Ageas Bowl in Southampton to play the fourth Test of the five-match Pataudi Trophy. England has come into this match 2-1 up but has lost the last Test match they played at Nottingham.
India, on the other hand, came into this Test match all cock-a-hoop after their brilliant win of 203 runs.
England captain Joe Root won the toss and chose to bat first on a belter of a pitch. England had made two changes in their playing XI with Moeen Ali and Sam Curran coming in the team for Chris Woakes and Ollie Pope. India however, for the first time after 38 Tests under Kohli, went in the Test with an unchanged playing XI.
Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah kept the pressure on the England batsmen and soon they crumbled. Keaton Jennings (0), Joe Root (4) and Jonny Bairstow (6) all went in quick succession with Bumrah picking Jennings and Bairstow, while Ishant picked Root and completed his 250 wickets in Tests and his 50th Test wickets against England. Hardik Pandya meanwhile got rid of Alastair Cook for 17 runs.
Ben Stokes (23) and Jos Buttler (21) tried to steady the ship, but Mohammad Shami removed both of them to leave England to 86/6.
Moeen Ali (40) and Sam Curran (78 with 8 fours and 1 six) added 86 runs for the 7th wicket. Ashwin removed Ali and Sharma removed Adil Rashid. But then Curran found support in Stuart Broad (17) and the duo added 63 runs for the 9th wicket. Jasprit Bumrah removed Broad with England at 240.
Finally, Ashwin removed Curran for 78 runs and England folded for 246 runs. From 86/6 to 246 all out, England added 160 runs for the last four wickets.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah picked 3/46, Ishant Sharma got 2/26, R Ashwin got 2/40 and Shami picked 2/51.
Indian openers Dhawan and Rahul had to come out to play a tricky short session of England bowling and made 19/0 in four overs.
BRIEF SCORES:
ENG 246 (S CURRAN 78; J BUMRAH 3/46) leads IND 19/0 (KL RAHUL 11*) by 227 runs
