England vs India, 2nd Test: Four things India should fix before the second test

India and England lock horns in the second test of the five-match Test series at Lords on Thursday. Already 0-1 down in the series, India will know that they cannot slip up further if they want to win their first Test series in England since 2007.

After an embarrassing batting collapse in the second innings that saw Team India lose the first Test by 31 runs, the think-tank will have a number of issues to address before walking out at Lords.

With both spinners and fast bowlers working their magic in the first test, the onus will be on the batsmen to put up a better show than they did in the first test. All the batsmen except for captain Virat Kohli struggled in the seaming conditions and fell like nine pins.

This series provides a huge opportunity for Kohli and Co. to secure an away test series victory against a formidable opposition in a long time. Therefore, the following issues need to be resolved before Thursday:

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#1 The Pujara conundrum

India dropped their first choice number three batsman in Cheteshwar Pujara for the more flamboyant KL Rahul for the first test. This move was made in order to accommodate both Shikhar Dhawan and Rahul in the side.

The move backfired spectacularly with both Dhawan and Rahul failing with the bat and the former spilling catches at crucial stages of the match. Therefore, Ravi Shastri and Kohli will have to take a call on Pujara for the second test.

Pujara, a natural test player, has of late failed to score runs for his county side Yorkshire and that might have tempted the management to go with the more attack-minded Dhawan and Rahul. The role of the openers and the number three in any test side is to see off the new ball with the minimum loss of wickets, thereby tiring out the opposition.

Pujara who is known for playing the waiting game early into his innings and capitalising later on in the day will come into reckoning if the Kohli decides to drop either Dhawan or Rahul for more stability.

#2 The batting line up should shoulder more responsibility

The likes of Dhawan and Vijay need to build a solid platform for the rest to flourish upon

Barring Captain Kohli, the rest of the batting line-up failed miserably in the swinging English conditions. At Edgbaston, Kohli showed the world and his team-mates on how to conquer such difficult conditions with a sound technique and will-power.

When Jimmy Anderson kept on plugging away outside the off-stump on the second day, Kohli expressed restraint by curbing his natural instincts and leaving most off the balls alone in that corridor.

When the edge was finally drawn, lady luck saved him as David Malan dropped him twice. In such tough conditions with the Duke ball creating all sorts of trouble, finding the edge is a certainty and how you respond after the edge is drawn, shows at what level you belong to.

All the Indian batsmen are talented players and fully deserve to be a part of such a historic team but the proper temperament was certainly lacking amongst the batsmen. The team is young and thus, has a good chance of learning from the earlier mistakes.

To play as the number one ranked test side, mastering overseas conditions is definitely the litmus test and the benchmark for unanimous acceptance of the number one status.

#3 Improve slip fielding

Slip catching has been India's Achilles heel for some time now

No matter how many catches you take in practice, the ones that count are the ones that are taken during the match. Though the fielding standards have improved incredibly over the years, yet slip fielding still remains an area of concern.

India was found guilty of dropping catches in the first test and probably Dhawan's dropped catches in the second innings acted as the turning point of the match.

47 - Since December 2013, India's spin cordon has dropped 47 and taken 36 catches off fast bowlers.

Similarly, England will see Malan’s drop of Kohli in the first innings as their chance where the match could have potentially turned away from them. The slip cordon will have to sort out their catching woes to make sure that matches are not lost after all "Catches win Matches".

#4 Cleaning up the tail quickly

Curran took the match away from the Indians with both the bat and ball

At Edgbaston, India allowed the English tail to wag in the second innings. From 87/7, England mustered 180 runs to set up challenging target of 194 in the second innings.

Sam Curran came in at number eight and smashed 63 runs off just 65 balls to give England the upper edge. He formed a crucial 48-run ninth wicket partnership with Adil Rashid before another 41-run partnership with Stuart Broad meant the Poms set a decent total on a difficult wicket.

Hindsight is always of the if’s and what’s but it really does not count for anything in real time. Ishant Sharma was the bright spark in the second innings along with Ravi Ashwin and both accounted for 13 out of the 20 English wickets in the match. However, the onus will be on the rest of the bowling attack to support the rest of the team.