Paul Collingwood: India will bounce back

Paul Collingwood

Though England outclassed India by an innings and 76 runs in the third Test at Headingley last week, former England captain and current assistant coach Paul Collingwood reckons Virat Kohli & Co are a tough team and will bounce back in the fourth Test, starting at the Oval on Thursday.

"I'm sure we're preparing ourselves for an Indian bounce-back. We know they are a high-quality team and we have always prepared ourselves like they are going to be 100 per cent ready for the next battle, regardless of the new conditions at the Oval," Collingwood told mid-day during a virtual media interaction from London on Tuesday. After a drawn opening Test in Nottingham, India beat England by 151 runs at Lord's. However, a batting collapse in the first innings, where India managed a meagre 78 at Leeds, saw the visitors suffer a big loss on Day Four of the third Test.

"I thought we bowled tremendously well. It is easy to criticise the Indian batsmen if you are an Indian supporter, but there was a lot of movement off the pitch on the first day. We were also thinking about bowling on that first morning [at Leeds]. There was a bit of moisture in the pitch and the way we bowled, made it tricky for the batsmen. Kohli said in his post-match conference that the accuracy and relentlessness of our bowlers was something that they struggled against and their accuracy, I thought, was fantastic as was the movement of the ball. So it's difficult to play when you have high-quality bowlers in those conditions," added Collingwood, who
has 9,934 runs under his belt at the international level and 144 wickets across all formats.

Fourth Test between India and England: 3:30 pm onwards on Sony Six and Sony Ten 3 from September 2

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