Learn from Kohli, show some guts: Assistant coach's advice to England batsmen

Coming down hard on his players for their below-par show in the ongoing third Test match against India at Trent Bridge, England assistant coach Paul Farbrace asked his top batsmen to take a cue from Indian skipper Virat Kohli and show guts and gumption to save the third Test.

Coming down hard on his players for their below-par show in the ongoing third Test match against India at Trent Bridge, England assistant coach Paul Farbrace asked his top batsmen to take a cue from Indian skipper Virat Kohli and show guts and gumption to save the third Test.

After being bowled out for 161 in the first innings, hosts England now face an improbable 521-run target going into the final two days at Trent Bridge.

"I'm a big believer in players learning from players, and I think ours will be watching the way Kohli lets the ball come, and almost takes third and fourth slip out of the game," Farbrace said.

None of the England batters found an answer to Hardik Pandya’s swing in the first innings whereas the Indian captain showcased manual on how to score runs in England by notching up his 23^rd Test ton and helping India set a target in excess of 500 for the hosts.

"You're looking for the best players to learn from the best players, and try to adapt their game to suit - and I think there's no better exponent of that at the moment than him.

"Having had such a poor performance yesterday, you would expect your batsmen to show some gumption and some guts and get stuck in tomorrow and show that they are the best players" he added.

It was Kohli’s second hundred of the series, following the 149 in the Edgbaston Test and Farbrace said the India skipper deserves the runs he has scored in England.

 "You would be hard-pressed to argue against him (Kohli) being seen as the best player in the world at the moment. The way he's developed, played through this series, has been absolutely fantastic. I like the way he plays the game, it's fantastic to see," he said.

Kohli curbed his natural attacking style of batting, allowing him more himself more time to get accustomed to the overcast conditions, aiding the medium pacers. Kohli resisted from flashing outside the off stump and even put his most productive shot – the cover drive – in the closet to give Anderson and Co. no chance of getting the better of him.

 "He's a high-quality player, and has shown he's learned a lot on this tour alone. The way he's tinkered, practised and obviously worked at his game fantastic and he thoroughly deserves the runs he's scored. Our bowlers might argue that we've perhaps given him a few too many chances but the bloke has shown that he is high-quality."

Farbrace was critical of the English batsmen and hoped that the batsmen would improve in the second innings, taking the lead from James Anderson who bowled fantastic spells on day three.

"I thought Jimmy Anderson showed why he is the best seam bowler in world cricket. On the first day he didn't quite get it right, but today he got it spot on and bowled really well," he said.

"He kept challenging the stumps and the outside edge. You're looking for (Alastair) Cook, (Joe) Root and (Ben) Stokes to get stuck in and show they are top quality players."

But Anderson didn't get his due with Cheteshwar Pujara dropped on 40 and Virat Kohli on 93.

England have now dropped 15 catches in slips during this series and Farbrace pulled up the fielders for their 'soul destroying' drops.

"We've said that we practise hard. Our fielding coach works exceptionally hard over the two practice days. We think we've got some good catchers, but you can't keep shelling chances the way we are," Farbrace said.

"That comes down to two things, concentration not being good enough, or confidence. When you start to miss chances that stars to eat away at you.

"Our bowlers stuck at the job really well. 70 runs scored in the first session, and we keep plugging away. When bowlers are creating opportunities and catches are being dropped, that can be soul-destroying. Nobody means to drop a catch, but we are shelling too many."

Already facing an uphill task, England could be without the services of Jonny Bairstow, who suffered a fracture on his left middle finger whilst keeping wickets yesterday.

The coach, however, said Bairstow would bat if needed.

"There is a fracture in the tip of his finger, and the doctor's been working on him this evening to relieve a bit of pressure in the nail, so hopefully when needed he'll be okay. A lot will depend on how the next few days go, and the soreness in terms of catching balls on a consistent basis. We'll have to see how he goes," he said.

"I'm no expert on broken fingers, but because it's not a displaced break, then he should be okay, and it's just a case of managing the pain level as opposed to doing any further damage.

"There'll be a big bit of plastic stuck over his glove. Let's see how he goes over the next couple of days. If there is a risk of making it worse, he wouldn't bat," Farbrace signed off.