After posting 537 in their first innings, England bowlers endured a day of toil at Rajkot as Murali Vijay (126) and Cheteshwar Pujara (124) blunted the visitors’ bowling attack. At the close of play on Day Three, India were 318/4, 218 runs behind Alastair Cook’s side. India were in control for much of the day’s play, before relinquishing it and losing two wickets in the last four deliveries of the final session.

Despite looking good towards the end of Day Two, opener Gautam Gambhir could not build on his start and was trapped leg-before by Stuart Broad. England’s bowlers looked good in patches, especially medium-pacer Chris Woakes, but Vijay and Pujara hardly broke into a sweat while handling the spinners.

Vijay was the more aggressive of the two batsmen but it was local boy Pujara who got to his century first – his ninth in Test cricket. Vijay also got to his 100, his first in 2016.

England ended the day on a good note, picking up both the two batsmen’s wickets after a 209-run partnership. Pujara was dismissed by Ben Stokes while Vijay fell in the penultimate over of the day’s play to Adil Rashid. Left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari scalped Amit Mishra for a duck off the final ball of the day.