Team India-led by young skipper Shubman Gill have not only lost their first test match of the World Test Championship cycle but also made an unwanted record by losing a match after five batters from the side scoring centuries at Headingley.
Heading into the second test against England the team would be looking to find the winning ways. While the pressure would be on head coach Gambhir for losing seven of the last 11 tests now, there are three key challenges India is facing.
One Captain:
Shubman Gill, in his first match as India captain, led from the front with 147 in the first innings, and the good news for a team without retired skippers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli is that ruthlessness with the bat is a quality that can be acquired.
So too is authority in the field, with Rishabh Pant -- who scored two hundreds at Headingley -- and fellow century-maker KL Rahul too often looking as if they, rather than Gill, were calling the shots.
"At one point I felt there were too many captains," former India spinner Murali Karthik told Cricbuzz. "I just couldn't understand that. KL Rahul was making hand movements, Rishabh Pant was also doing it... There is only one captain."
Lower-order concerns:
Batting collapses of 7-41, after they had been 430-3, and 6-31, from 333-4, proved costly for India at Headingley as they became the first side in more than 60,000 first-class matches to score five individual hundreds and still lose.
Dropped Catches:
They were also hindered by some woeful out-cricket with a series of straightforward catches going to ground, two of them off Harry Brook who was dropped off a no-ball before he had scored and then had lives on 46 and 82 as he went on to make a vital 99 in England's first innings
Bazball with Brains:
England, buoyed by achieving the tenth-highest fourth-innings chase in Test history, in what former skipper Michael Vaughan said was a display of "Bazball with brains", named an unchanged team on Monday.
Home wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, who won the first Test with a six to finish on 44 not out, said at a media event staged by series sponsor Rothesay after last week's win: "I think the really important thing is for the team to be quite ruthless and once you're on top, try to put them to bed."
England lacked new-ball penetration in the first innings but their bowlers improved during the game.
Nevertheless, they have resisted the temptation to recall Jofra Archer and so end the express fast bowler's four years of injury-induced Test exile after naming the Sussex paceman in their Edgbaston squad.
Instead veteran all-rounder Chris Woakes, leading an attack without retired pace greats James Anderson and Stuart Broad, will look to bolster his tally of 182 wickets in 58 Tests on his Warwickshire home ground this week.
"I played a lot of my England games with Jimmy and Broady so it is different not having them around but also it's a great opportunity for myself," said Woakes, 36.
"I've enjoyed that role so far and it's good to pass on some knowledge to the younger guys that haven't played as much Test cricket."
