Third Test: Johnny Bairstow on England prospects

Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin shared a stand of 97 to take India to 417 for a first-innings lead of 134 and the home side then reduced England to 78-4 at stumps.

Bairstow, who fell for 15 just before the close, said: “It’s not the day we were looking for. To be brutally honest it wasn’t a great day for us. Obviously losing myself and Ben there at the end capped off a day that at the start of the day we didn’t envisage.

“Having got to the point where if we got a couple of quick ones in the morning we would be in a good position. They were obviously 17 behind. That didn’t happen and we’re fighting an uphill battle at the moment.

“It’s still a decent batting wicket to be honest. There were a few balls that kept low. They did a few things well with the ball as well. We’ve got to take it on the chin to be honest with you.

“It’s something we’ve got to fight hard with tomorrow. We’ve still got a lot of batting to come, we’ve got to remember that. Hopefully, the guys can pull it out of the hat tomorrow and we’ll keep digging in like we did in the first innings to get ourselves back and we did it with the ball. We got ourselves into a good position this morning but unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalise.

“Their bowlers are very consistent. If you come down and don’t quite get there. It was a good piece of bowling that got (Moeen Ali). It wasn’t the greatest of shots. If he’d gone through with it, it would have probably gone for six but it was a good piece of bowling.

“The balance was about right. We still scored runs this evening. It’s not like we’ve gone out and blocked. The balance was there but tomorrow is going to be a fighting day.”