Ahead of the start on day five of the ongoing first Test against England, would India give the English side an easy win or will the Men in Blue recreate the magic they did at the Gabba in the series Down Under against Australia?
Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant were the heroes of the Australian series especially in the last two Test, they were the chief architects. England would be wary of this and this could also be one of the reasons for the declaration not being made.
India's day 5 equations in their last three Tests:
Sydney - 98 overs, 309 runs, 8 wickets left
Gabba - 98 overs, 324 runs, 10 wickets left.
Chepauk - 90 overs, 381 runs, 9 wickets left.
India will enter day five at the MA Chidambaram Stadium with their score being 39/1 and the hosts still need 381 runs for the win.
Pujara (12) and Shubman Gill (15) are still at the crease for India. In the dying minutes on day four of the ongoing first, Jack Leach clean bowled Rohit Sharma and the hosts were given a major blow.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri were seen giving a pep talk on Tuesday to rally their team around for showing a "spirited brand of cricket."
BCCI posted a video on their official Twitter handle on Tuesday in which Kohli and Shastri can be seen giving a pep talk to the entire squad. "Final huddle talk," BCCI wrote as the caption.
Final huddle talk #TeamIndia @Paytm #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/IbGsQyP2fl
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2021
On day four, England didn't declare even after having a lead of more than 400 runs and the visitors weren't even looking to score runs at a quick pace before they folded up for 178.
Former Australia spinner Shane Warne was surprised with the visitors' decision to not declare and was also fumed at England's slow approach with the bat on day four of the first Test.
Earlier in the day, after being bowled out for 337, India gave the visitors a lead of 241 runs but England did not decide to enforce the follow on and the side sent out Rory Burns and Dominic Sibley to score runs at a brisk pace.
Ashwin picked six wickets, restricting England to a very low total in the second innings and with this, a target of 420 runs was set for the hosts.
(Inputs from ANI)