India determined to Root quick start in 4th Test

India have learnt their lessons against England's in-form captain Joe Root and are determined not to give him freebies early in his knock, bowling coach Bharat Arun said on the eve of the fourth Test at Oval from Thursday.

Root smashed three centuries in as many Tests and is comfortably the leading scorer in the fivetest series which remains level at 1-1. The England skipper has looked in the form of his life, racking up six test centuries this year and becoming the topranked test batsman.

Arun agreed to the suggestion that the otherwise tidy Indian bowlers might have fed an in-form batsman too many loose deliveries early in his knock to make things easy for him. "You hit the nail on the head," the former India bowler told a virtual news conference on Wednesday. "We have given him pretty fast starts, and obviously we looked deep into those areas, and we look to stem those."

In contrast, India's own batting was dismal in the third Test at Headingley, where the tourists were shot out for 78 en route to an innings defeat. Arun said their bowlers had time and again defended low totals but were bound to fail occasionally. "The biggest challenge for the bowlers is to defend low scores and they've done it in the past. I don't think it's fair to pull up the bowlers if they have not done it on one occasion."

Arun said their Headingley capitulation was an aberration and the team knew how to bounce back from such comprehensive defeats. India have added seamer Prasidh Krishna to their squad but Arun said it was merely a precaution, considering the workload on the frontline bowlers. England have named all-rounder Moeen Ali as the vice-captain in the absence of wicketkeeper Jos Buttler who misses the match to attend the birth of his second child.