ENG vs IND: Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma lead India's fightback on Day 3 as deficit goes below 150

Team India's never-ending nightmare of two days finally came to an end in the third Test on Day 3 as the tourists had a day to remember from start to finish as their bid to respond to England's mammoth 432-run score grew stronger as the play came to close. The visitors on the back of opener Rohit Sharma's innings of 59 runs and unbeaten knocks of 91 and 45 runs by Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, respectively finished the day on 215/2 as the deficit of 354 came down to 139 runs with two days still left in the game.

A strong fightback from India on day three as they close 215 for 2 with Cheteshwar Pujara 91 not out alongside Virat Kohli on 45*. Rohit Sharma earlier made a hard-fought 59 #ENGvsIND #OneRose pic.twitter.com/TCORqxsyBt

— Yorkshire CCC (@YorkshireCCC) August 27, 2021

The first challenge for the day for the visitors was to take the remaining two wickets of England's innings as quickly as possible and they did. The hosts could add only nine runs to their overnight score of 423-8 as Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah shared the spoils bowling them out for 432.

With a mountain of 354 runs on their head, Indian openers were successful in negotiating the initial James Anderson-Ollie Robinson burst. The ball was moving and doing all sorts of things as gray skies overhead weren't helping the batsmen's cause. They almost got through to lunch unscathed before Jonny Bairstow with an absolute blinder with one hand at second slip dismissed KL Rahul at the stroke of lunch.

England were and are still at the top in this game and every wicket was their one step closer to winning this match and with the form of Indian middle order, this was a huge wicket. However, something unexpected followed after the lunch break which put England on the backfoot and India on the path of a fightback.

Rohit Sharma was watchful and controlled while Cheteshwar Pujara didn't miss any scoring opportunity that came his way. England seamers, especially Anderson kept feeding him half-volleys on his pads and he kept putting them away. At least seven boundaries he scored off his pads on the day by Pujara on the way to a fabulous innings of 91*.

Pujara's innings had the intent to score runs but also focus to play the ball on its merit. While Rohit rode on his luck but it soon ran out after his fifty, Pujara almost played a flawless knock. Pujara's knock gave skipper Virat Kohli the much-needed time and he too got into the job of frustrating England soon enough.

Pujara wore his most determined look and cruised to a sensational unbeaten 91.

Tune into Sony Six (ENG), Sony Ten 3 (HIN), Sony Ten 4 (TAM, TEL) & SonyLIV (https://t.co/AwcwLCPFGm ) now! #ENGvINDOnlyOnSonyTen #BackOurBoys #Pujara pic.twitter.com/qEO52Kfqyg

— Sony Sports (@SonySportsIndia) August 27, 2021

Both carried their side to the end of the day without any hiccups as another long day of batting awaits India at Headingley.