India vs England 3rd Test: THIS one change in James Anderson's bowling exposed India's weakness

James Anderson's fiery opening spell didn't allow India recover from a bad start.

James Anderson and Virat Kohli

James Anderson is one of the finest we have seen operating in favourable conditions, so spearheading the English attack in style was expected out of him at Headingley, but his early success in the first innings also proved what an astute cricketing brain he has.

Just when the Indian batsmen were preparing to play him on the front-foot in the nets, he was devising a new strategy to test the opponent. And mind you, it’s not against any ordinary team but India with probably the most dominant attitude in the world cricket at the moment! Which means aggression wise, Anderson couldn’t counter the Indians, but a change in tactics did the trick for him.

Anderson, who on seaming pitches, usually keeps the balls around good length, in between 6 to 8 metres. However, in the third Test, he started with balls ranging in between 5 and 7 metres.

It was a double-edged sword for Anderson. Indian batsmen, who are really good on the fuller length balls without much deviation, could pounce on him and gather dozens of runs in and around the cover region. But the ball was swinging and also generating a fare amount of pace off the pitch. This only meant a higher degree of making mistakes.

When KL Rahul perished it was obvious that the Indian batters would go into the shell for the first session at least, and there came the experience of Anderson’s 164 Tests quite handy. He kept attacking and pushing the opponent back. As a result, India could never come out of the backseat.

With only 78 on board and Indian bowlers not adopting the same strategy, it’s going to be a really uphill task for the guests to save the match.