Though the hosts England is looking to put a challenging fourth innings target for the visitors India in the ongoing fourth Test at The Rose Bowl (Southampton), Indian Test specialist batsman Cheteshwar Pujara is confident to chase the target and level the five-match Test series by 2-2.

At the stumps on day three of the ongoing fourth Test, England was batting on 260/8 and was leading by 233 runs. While India has no Test victory record that has chased a 200+ target in the fourth innings on the English soil, they have won only three Tests outside the Asian soil by successfully chasing the 200 or more runs target in the fourth innings.

Coming to the ongoing Southampton Test, Indian batsmen struggled against the English off-spinner Moeen Ali in their first innings as Ali (5/63) picked up five wickets in that innings.

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At the stumps on day three, England was batting on 260/8 in their second innings and has already taken the lead of 233 runs. While it already seems a challenging target for India, Pujara, who scored a brilliant century in the first innings (132*), believes the pitch has slowed down a bit and looks like it has become slightly easier to bat.

Pujara said at the end of the day three, “I don’t think it was a tough day for us, in the sense, looking at the pitch, it has slowed down a bit. It looks like it is slightly easier to bat. And we have got lot of experience playing in such conditions back home. So, I think our batsmen would have realised… we started off well in the first innings but lost too many wickets in the middle phase. If we had batted well, we could have got 100 or 150 runs lead.

“But that is something in the past. All batsmen have realised what they need to do, and in the second innings we will put up a good show after bowling them out early tomorrow.”

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While Ali bagged five wickets during India’s first innings, Indian experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin failed to impress on day three as his bowling figure was 35-7-78-1. However, Pujara felt Ashwin didn’t have a bad day with the ball.

Pujara said about Ashwin’s bowling, “I don’t think he had a bad day. He didn’t get too many wickets but kept on bowling in the right areas. Sometimes as a bowler you do have such days.

“Ashwin is a clever bowler, he has done really well for us throughout in the domestic season and overseas. But yes, the pitch has slowed down a lot and that could be the reason some of his balls didn’t go through as much he might have wanted.

“I don’t know much about spin bowling, so I can’t comment much about what technicalities it involves, but seeing him bowl, I don’t think he bowled badly at all.”

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Talking about the difference between Ali and Ashwin’s performances in this Test, Pujara believes Ali got a faster wicket than what Ashwin got in the third innings of this Test match.

Pujara said, “When he (Moeen Ali) bowled in the first innings, the wicket was a little quicker. Some of our batsmen could have batted well against him, but he is a good bowler. I’m not trying to take any credit away from how he bowled, but we still should have batted better against him. In the second innings our batters will have a better game plan against Moeen.”