England were top of the Test tree ten years ago, now they’re wilting woefully. Root must beat India and... STOP THE ROT!

TEN years ago this week england went to the top of the world Test rankings with a 4-0 thumping of India. And two years ago, in the last Test played at this famous old Headingley ground, Ben Stokes pulled off one of the greatest of all performances to beat Australia.

Things are different now. not only is Stokes not here — one of several whose absences have so weakened this england side — but Joe Root (below) is desperately seeking Test respectability rather than the lofty heights achieved by Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower.

Rather than england’s stated ambition of a return to the top of the Test tree, they badly need a win in the third Test starting today. Any win would do after a run of seven Tests without one and, most damningly, six without a victory at home.

And waiting for england like a coiled spring lies the animated figure of Virat Kohli, seeking another triumph to follow the dramatic one at Lord’s which would give him and India at least a share of this marquee series.

How long ago now those halcyon days of english Test domination seem. And how revealing it is that the series which took england to the top of the world was finishing this week in 2011 having been played in prime summer.

now Test cricket is pushed to the margins and england have three back-to-back games left to save their season and avert a major inquest into the viability of the Root-Chris Silverwood partnership at the very time they hoped to be peaking as a side for Australia.

Kohli was unimpressed yesterday when asked if this was a good time to play england, with Stokes, Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad and now Mark Wood all out.

‘even when key players are there we think we can beat anyone in the world,’ said the captain with his very best disdain. ‘We don’t wait for the opposition to be weak. I don’t think that’s the right question to ask a team that’s been playing such good cricket over so many years.

‘We don’t depend on teams in front of us being weak to have an opportunity to win a series. That’s not how we play our cricket.’

It was Kohli’s ability to get under the skin of Jimmy Anderson, in particular, with behaviour that came close to crossing the line that made england lose the plot at Lord’s. And it has been fascinating to see their response.

First, coach Silverwood in the aftermath of the second Test defeat said england would fight Indian fire with fire. Then Root said his side had to concentrate on their own game.

Anderson yesterday harked back to that all-conquering england side when reflecting on how he had reacted to the verbals and then Jasprit Bumrah bombarding him with short bowling in a ten-ball over, some delivered from closer than 22 yards.

‘If you go back to 2010-11 the england side featured guys at the peak of their powers,’ said Anderson in his Daily Telegraph column. ‘They were similar to Kohli in some respects. They liked the battle on the field.

‘now we go about our cricket in a different way and I have to remember that. It is pointless one person getting into a fight with someone. We don’t want to be shrinking violets but there’s a balance.’

not that Kohli considers himself the aggressor of Lord’s.

‘What happened just shows this team won’t back down and take a backward step when provoked,’ he insisted. ‘We play together, we play to win and we don’t let anyone take us lightly.’

There is no danger of that, even on a ground where none of Kohli’s side have played Test cricket before. But england remain very much on the back foot.

Their batting does look a bit stronger for the selection of Dawid Malan at three but he is a 33-yearold who last played Test cricket three years ago against India and struggled then. He follows yet another new opening pair with much to prove, surely the first ponytailed duo to open the batting for england in Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed. If Fred Trueman was still around on his home ground he would probably not know what was going off out there.

There will also be an enforced change to the bowling, with Craig Overton favourite to replace Wood ahead of Saqib Mahmood, with Sam Curran retaining his place.

It would be a choice based on Overton’s height and ability to get the bounce that might disconcert India’s batsmen but it seems a conservative one, with Mahmood having qualities that would provide a point of difference in extra speed and reverse swing.

england have bounced back several times before when they have looked down and almost out, but this seems a different task altogether. It will take an almighty effort for them not to go two down and all but surrender this series.