'Every ball is important' - India confront the curse of the break

It will have rankled India considerably during their tour of England that they have frequently lost wickets just before or just after breaks in play. Let's first look at the Lord's Test as an example.

In their first innings, three balls prior to lunch on day three, Rishabh Pant ran himself out. Less than two overs post the break, his batting partner KL Rahul edged a drive to slip. On the same day, they lost Nitish Kumar Reddy 3.3 overs after tea, and Ravindra Jadeja 3.2 overs after the final drinks break, with Jamie Smith pouching both chances behind the wicket. The Jadeja wicket triggered a collapse that saw them lose their last four wickets for just 11 runs.

Late in the afternoon on the fourth day, in a dramatic last hour, India lost three second-innings wickets in 31 balls, sliding from 41 from 1 to 58 for 4. Three further wickets fell in 23 balls in the first hour of the final morning. Then, with four balls to go for lunch, Reddy fell just when he seemed to be building a partnership with Jadeja.

There was a similar trend during the first Test defeat at Headingley. Rahul and debutant B Sai Sudharsan fell in the span of five deliveries just before lunch on the first morning. Yashasvi Jaiswal departed in the second over after tea. India would want to forget the second day, as they lost six wickets either side of lunch, collapsing from 447 for 4 to 471 all out. On the third evening, three overs before stumps, they lost Sai Sudharsan, and Shubman Gill followed in the first full over of the next morning, bowled by Brydon Carse.

While a significant number of the above dismissals were the result of England's bowlers executing their plans, there have also been instances where India may have felt their batteres lost focus or played a casual shot either side of a break. It is a riddle head coach Gautam Gambhir and his two batting assistants - Sitanshu Kotak and Ryan ten Doeschate - have been trying to solve throughout this Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, which now moves Manchester with the fourth Test starting at Old Trafford on July 23.

Speaking after India's training session on Thursday in Beckenham, Kent's second home ground, ten Doeschate agreed that losing wickets around intervals was proving to be a critical challenge. "It has," he said. "You have got to sort of weigh up, is it more coincidence or is there a pattern of something we are doing wrong? Are we losing concentration? Are we getting too excited to get in there? Are we getting complacent in the positions we are [in]? And that's very difficult to draw out of a player. So it is something we are mentioning."

Pant's run-out dismissal in the first innings at Lord's became a major talking point, with Rahul admitting that his eagerness to reach his century - he was on 97 at the start of the last over before lunch - played a role in the misjudgment. While Rahul said it was a turning point in the match, Gill, after the defeat, said it was purely an "error of judgement."

As a full house at Lord's expressed a range of reactions to Pant's dismissal, which was a result of England captain Ben Stokes' awareness and supreme athletic ability, ten Doeschate was at the training nets behind the Nursery End, issuing throwdowns to India's reserve batters. He was in disbelief.

"There's been a few times we almost feel like it can't happen again," ten Doeschate said. "I was throwing balls at the back at Lord's when [Pant] got run out and was incredulous. You couldn't believe that it happened again. But that's also no guarantee that they are going to put on another 70, 80, 100 runs. Every ball is important, and the messaging to the players throughout has been: let's try win every single event, which is every ball, not look too far forward, and not look too far behind us either."

The Indians were full of beans during the Beckenham session despite being 2-1 behind in the series. While Rahul was the only batter absent, the rest barring Pant, who is recovering from the finger injury he sustained at Lord's, had a regular hit in the nets. From a distance there was nothing evident about them trying anything different.

Ten Doeschate said the batters had done most things right in the three Tests and that the numbers backed this up. So there was absolutely no need for changes in plan other than minor tinkering. "The focus is to not try change too much and that might be counterintuitive when you're 2-1 down in the series, but we feel like the guys have been excellent for large parts of the series. The repetition of losing lots of wickets in a very short space of time has obviously been the key feature of the two losses: both times in Headingley and overnight and first thing in the morning at Lord's we feel cost us the game, losing six wickets for 40 again.

"But if you look at it individually, if you look at the run tally of all the batters, they are all batting nicely. Even someone like Karun [Nair], we feel his rhythm's good, his tempo is good, we want more runs from him at [number] three. But the message is mainly, let's really focus on what we have done well and tidy up the little things that have cost us results, essentially."

The good thing is India know they are breaking bad, so to say, but they know what needs to be done to stop that from becoming chronic.