5 takeaways from India's warm-up match against Essex

India's three-day warm-up match against Essex came to a close on Friday with the visitors ending the day at 89 for 2 with KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane unbeaten on 36 and 19 respectively.

Earlier in the day, the Indians had taken a 36-run lead thanks to some exceptional bowling from Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma, who ensured that the hosts were bowled out for 359, taking figures of four for 35 and three for 59 respectively.

Whether the conditions didn't assist them or if Indian deliberately chose not to use them can't be said, but the troika of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav delivered a combined total of 11 overs in the innings, thereby raising a lack of clarity on which pairing would take the field in the opening Test at Edgbaston starting on Wednesday.

That and a few other aspects were the major talking points in India's drawn-out affair at Chelmsford, which concluded on Friday:

Rishabh Pant sparkles early

Ahead of veterans like Parthiv Patel, the Indian team management decided to back 20-year-old Delhi wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant as the backup for the first choice Dinesh Karthik for the first three Test matches.

Sent out to bat at Number 11, the left-hander impressed everyone watching with a quickfire 34 off 26 balls with six boundaries in them and was the last man unbeaten as India were bowled out for 395 runs in their first innings.

It is yet unclear over whether Pant would play a part in the series, but going by Virat Kohli's captaincy decisions in recent times, it would not come as a surprise if he finds a way to include the left-hander if the situation does arise.

Perhaps, a slot at the top of the order to open with Murali Vijay could be the way forward.

Dhawan-Pujara flop

Will it be all smiles for these two in the Test series?

Heading into the first Test, Kohli and the management may have one worry in their minds which is the non-performance of Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara in the warm-up game.

The former fell for a pair in the game while the latter made 1 and 23 respectively.

Both players are now on their second tour to England and did not have a good time in 2014 and so will hope to find their mojo back in the next few days and get into a good space before the first Test, starting on Wednesday.

KL-Kohli-Karthik all fire

Has Rahul assured himself an opening slot for the first Test?

The three Ks in the batting unit- KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik, had the opposite unit to that of Dhawan and Pujara, amassing fifties for themselves in the first innings of the game.

Runs from Rahul's bat should provide confidence to the management, who could consider him to open with Murali Vijay in the first Test. There's no disputing that Kohli's blade will need to do a lot of talking in the series if India are to do well and Karthik's contribution of 82 runs in the first innings should also come as a boost as it could mean that they could go in with five specialist batsmen and five specialist bowlers if the need does arise for it in the future.

Lack of bowling for the spinners

Will these two be up for the first Test next week?

It is expected that until and unless England dish out an absolute rank turner, India will field only two out of the three between Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.

But in the warm-up game, Ashwin bowled a mere five overs, but it was later revealed that he had sustained a minor injury, hence you could forgive him for not having bowled a lot. But the lack of bowling time for the other two leaves a lot to be desired, as to who indeed would take the field in the first Test.

Ishant-Umesh impress; Shami-Pandya disappoint

Has Kohli identified his main fast bowling pair for the first Test?

In the tour of South Africa earlier this year, almost every Indian fast bowler played some part barring Umesh Yadav, who did not find a place despite a stellar home season in red-ball cricket where you thought he had finally arrived as a bowler.

In the warm-up, he gave further proof of why he deserved a place in the starting XI when he took figures of 4 for 35 and was well backed up by Ishant Sharma, who picked up figures of 3 for 59.

In contrast, Mohammad Shami and Hardik Pandya endured rough spells with the ball, going wicketless in their 21 and 12 overs spells respectively and conceding 68 and 54 runs respectively.