Manchester | England vice-captain Ollie Pope and Joe Root struck unbeaten half-centuries to take the hosts to 332/2 at lunch on day three of the fourth Test here on Friday.
Resuming on 225/2, the duo added 107 runs in the morning session to reduce India's first-innings lead to 26 runs.
Pope (70 batting) scored his fifty in 93 balls, while Root took 99 deliveries to get to his his half-century.
Root (63 not out) also surpassed Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis to become the third-highest run-scorer in Test history.
Openers Ben Duckett (94) and Zak Crawley (84) had notched up half centuries on Thursday after England bowled India out for 358.
Scoreboard at lunch on Day 3 of the fourth Test between India and England here on Friday.
India 1st innings: 358
England 1st innings:
Zak Crawley c Rahul b Jadeja 84
Ben Duckett c sub (Dhruv Jurel) b Kamboj 94
Ollie Pope batting 70
Joe Root batting 63
Extras: (B-4, LB-10, NB-7) 21
Total: (For 2 wickets in 74 overs) 332
Bowling: Jasprit Bumrah 18-5-54-0, Anshul Kamboj 15-1-72-1, Mohammed Siraj 17-2-80-0, Shardul Thakur 6-0-37-0, Ravindra Jadeja 15-0-59-1, Washington Sundar 3-0-16-0.