England vs India 2018: What India should guard against in the fourth Test

Confidence is a two-edged sword, if you have it in the right measure it can win make you win big battles, but if you have it in more than desired quantity then it can make you lose battles that you are destined to win.

During the third test, India played well in all the departments, bowlers maintained the momentum generated from the first two matches. Fielders came back from an average performance in the first two Tests to gobble-up almost everything that came their way. Batting, the bone of contention during the earlier matches, finally came good as most of the batsmen chipped in with runs.

At the moment India is a confident bunch of players. Statements coming out in the media also suggest the same. While confidence is a good thing, but, at times it has a by-product named complacency.

India should guard against complacency. If the third Test win makes them forget the mistakes made during the first two tests then those errors can come back to haunt them. During the last English tour, India got complacent after their win at lords. We saw the result afterwards, India lost all three remaining test matches of the series and lost the series by a margin of 3-1.

Truth is, the third Test win doesn't make everything hunky-dory for India. Problems at top of the order still remain, in spite of their half-century partnerships, none of the openers could reach fifty individually. The middle order came to the party but they need to stay motivated as it's a long way to go before the series gets over.

On the other hand, the English side might have woken-up after the third test debacle. English side got their selection wrong during the third test by dropping Curran and he is likely to make a comeback. It is also likely that they will come back hard at the Indians while trying to avoid mistakes made during the third test.

Sam Curran

To sum it up, India looks good to equal the series before going into the decider, the only thing that can prevent them from doing so is Indian team themselves by being complacent.