Wasn't the surface to come out swinging; Indian attack made it hard to score: Ollie Pope

"This wasn't a surface where you could come out swinging," said Ollie Pope as he defended England abandoning 'Bazball' for a more conservative style of batting on the opening day of the third Test against India here.

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England were 251/4 at stumps on Thursday after an uncharacteristically defensive performance that required plenty of patience, a far cry from their usually aggressive rate of scoring in the format.

"This wasn't a surface where you could come out swinging. The Indian attack held their lengths and made it hard to score," Pope said at the post-play press conference, referring to the tight spells bowled by the Indian attack that was bolstered by the return of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah (1/35).

Nitish Kumar Reddy (2/46) was most successful while Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj did their bit to maintain a tight grip on the scoring rate.