England v India: fourth men’s cricket Test, day three – live

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Well, it turns out the downright doleful Robert Heath is in luck. John Stedman emails to say Zaltzman has been crunching the numbers (been emailing the Beeb too Bobby?)

Those numbers look prettay good to me:

Joe Root:

72 innings when not out overnight

3227 runs added

Average 53.7 added to overnight score (12 not outs)

Shubman Gill is currently on the outfield practicing his slip catching, he’s pouched everything FYI.

India need to make inroads this morning after their least incisive day with the ball yesterday. If England are still batting post tea then they’ll have a hefty lead and the series could well be slipping out of view for the visitors.

Catch up on yesterday’s action with Ali Martin’s report and Simon Burnton’s analysis:

Robert Heath pings in the first email of the day and its given me heavy boots:

“I promise I’m not predicting anything or tempting fate, but – I’d love to see the stat of how many times Joe Root has been not out overnight but has been dismissed in the first half an hour next day. It seems to me that it’s a thing for him!”

You’d love to see it eh Bobby? Well, you’re bang out of luck on this OBO. Smyth might indulge your entirely hunch based statistical pessimism later in the day. I won’t stand for it.

Ben Stokes has been a bowling colossus in this series:

Wonder how Rishab Pant’s foot is this morning? Bag of Petit Pois and couple of Ibruprofen pronto?

Taha Hashim was on hand to cover yesterday’s biggest sub plot:

Preamble

Welcome to Manchester. They do things differently here.

Alighting at Piccadilly Station this morning there was a gaggle of Crusading Knights, a handful of Hulk Hogans and four Richie Benaud’s queuing for a Greggs Breakfast. They were all headed to the same place…

It’s day three of England v India from Old Trafford. Moving Day. The sun is shiiiining and England are Definitely/Maybe going to enjoy batting in these conditions.

Ben Stokes’ side are 133 behind with eight first wickets in hand and will be looking to bat once and big on a wicket that has got some life in it and will likely offer some up ‘n’ down bounce and keep the spinners interested as the match goes deeper.

Ollie Pope is currently at the crease with plenty to prove to himself and the doubters after his average has once again turned thin and gruelly after a century earlier in the series.

At the other end there’s this fella called Joe Root, he’s got Messrs Dravid, Kallis and Ponting in his sights on the all time Test run scorers list.

Rob Key is currently playing keepy uppies with the England team (Hello fellow kids and mind those toes Brydon Carse!) play begins at 11am and as always do get in touch with your thoughts and theories. You and I are gonna live forever OBO till an hour after lunch before the Supersonic Rob Smyth takes over. Know what I mean?