England facing uphill battle to avoid series defeat to India

England face a sizeable battle to avoid a series defeat to India as they trail by 257 runs in the rescheduled fifth LV= Insurance Test, with the tourists only three down in their second innings at the close of day three at Edgbaston.

Jonny Bairstow (106) hit another magnificent hundred - his third in as many games and fifth in his last eight Tests - to help England, reeling at 84-5 overnight, post 284 in their first innings.

India, with a lead of 132, lost Shubman Gill (4) in James Anderson's opening over, but with Cheteshwar Pujara (50no) leading by example - bringing up a 33rd Test fifty late in the day - they fought their way into a dominant position at 125-3 by stumps.

Virat Kohli (20) fell late in the day, extending his barren run of 32 Test innings without a century stretching back to November 2019 - Ben Stokes (1-22) with a snorter of a delivery to take Kohli's glove and Joe Root showing super reflexes to claim the catch on the rebound as Sam Billings first spilled it behind the stumps.

Stokes, in particular, found considerable movement late in the day but England couldn't add further to their wicket tally, with first-innings centurion Rishabh Pant coming in and cracking four boundaries to sit unbeaten on 30 at the close.

England's captain will be disappointed with his dismissal earlier in the day. He and Bairstow countered to good effect in the morning, as expected, but Stokes did not heed the warnings to rein in his aggressive strokeplay somewhat when dropped on 16 and again on 25, the ball before his downfall to the very same shot.

Stokes continually charged down the pitch to the skilled Indian seamers and firstly skied one high and to Shardul Thakur at cover, who spilled the chance. Thakur (1-48) made amends