With India's batting in dire straits, there is no divine intervention forthcoming. Trent Bridge, the venue for the next Test, has the reputation of aiding seam and swing.

In such cases, when you have a crisis of sorts, it's best to focus on the controllables - like the playing XI. Albeit a Test late, India must play the extra batsman. That done, it's about every individual batsman digging deep into his game and mind and coming motivated with a clear plan.

Having watched them over the years, this is my humble guide to what each batsman could do, if picked in the XI.

Shikhar Dhawan

His issue is hard hands. He pushes at balls even when he is not looking for runs and is looking to defend.

He must tell himself, "I will allow the ball to come to me, meet it under my eyes with a still bat, and leave all balls on the sixth stump alone." I saw him do this in New Zealand in 2014 when he got 115 and 98 in two consecutive innings. He must bring that game back. And if England go to plan B and bounce him, duck under - his attacking game against the short ball makes him as vulnerable.

KL Rahul

There were signs that he was trying to use the space behind the crease in the second innings at Lord's, instead of a token front-foot prod. Rahul must tell himself to keep his mind open and watch the ball like a hawk. He has the game and he knows his failings - but he can't let thoughts of them cloud his mind as the bowler is running in. He was focused too much on the line outside off when James Anderson got the ball angling back in his last innings.

M Vijay

His great strength when he was getting all those runs overseas was his ability to leave balls outside off. But in South Africa on the last tour, he seemed very keen to put bat to ball when the ball was outside off. That didn't work. Later in the series, he tried to leave balls on that line but it seemed like his compact game was corrupted by then.

In this series so far, he has been out leaving the ball and also while playing it when in the channel, so he must feel like he has hit a wall.

This series, Vijay has been guilty of committing to a shot very early, depending on the first line he sees when the ball is halfway down the pitch. That's when he committed to leaving the ball at Edgbaston in the second innings, and it has been the same the other times, when he played shots to get out.

His mantra should be about committing late, wait for the second line, when the ball swings or seams after it's more than halfway down the pitch - a phenomenon that we hardly see in India.