3 Positives for Team India From The England Test Tour So Far 

Despite being at the top of the game for the most part of the match, India could not capitalize on those moments and lost the 4th Test against England by 60 runs. India had the whole game in their hand till the final day (in this case 4th day) when Pujara and Kohli were batting and put on a 100-run partnership. Though there are many reports going around by many experts in different websites and news channels about the root cause of these close losses, we will look at the positives that India can take forward from the series so far.

There were not many positives for India but in such a situation, it is better to concentrate on the positive side of the things. So, here are the 3 things that team India can take forward to in the 5th Test.

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#3 Ashwin's Batting Form

Ashwin can turn into a dangerous all-rounder

Ashwin may be struggling with his bowling in the 4th Test but, his batting was not that distressed considering he his a no. 8 batsman. In the 4th Test, he scored 25 runs in the fourth innings and was the last batsmasn to be dismissed. He scored the third-highest runs for the team and was only behind Kohli and Pujara, who scored a fifty each. Even in the 2nd Test match in Lord's, where India lost the match by an innings and 159 runs, Ashwin was the only salient batsman. He scored the most runs in both the innings for India with scores of 29 and 33*. The scores were not that extraordinary, but the way he gritted it out was remarkable.

In the whole Test series, he has scored more runs than some of the notable batsman like Rahul and Cook. He may have not bowled as well as per expectations in Southampton, but that was just a match and it happens with every player. Besides, he has taken the most wickets as a spinner in this series (11) including a 4 and a 3-wicket haul.

#2 Pacers Striking Regularly

The pacers have been a revelation

A couple of years ago, India was not known to produce great fast bowlers but, the trend has changed now. In this series, Indian pacers are bowling faster than England pacers, which is remarkable. Bowlers like Bumrah are touching the speed of 140+ km constantly.

It is not just about the pace, as bowlers are also picking wickets by being accurate. Bowling with pace and also being accurate at the same time is a difficult art to master and players like Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron have regularly struggled with this in the past. In a country like England, where a team needs to have a good pace attack to take all 20 wickets, India has achieved this feat in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Tests.

The Indian pacers have taken 53 wickets out of the 67 England wickets to fall in this series, which speaks for itself. Though this could not help India in getting an upper hand in this series, the team can take this forward especially when they are going to tour Australia and New Zealand in the near future.

#1 Middle-order Performance

The middle order has shown glimpses of their potential

After the first two Tests, India's middle order was criticised because it was too dependent on Virat Kohli (544 runs). We got to see some progress in this. We got to see performances from other batsmen too, especially from Rahane and Pujara with their total score standing at 220 and 241 runs respectively till now.

Both scored 50+ runs twice in an innings as well. It has been the most important improvement so far in this series going forward as with the openers struggling right now, India desperately needed a strong middle-order to make up for that.

India still needs to improve as Rishabh Pant(43 runs) and Hardik Pandya(164 runs) have floundered on more occasions than one, which is proving to be the difference between the two sides as England's lower middle-order are contributing heavily at the moment. Maybe they can try playing with an extra batsman to strengthen their middle-order.