Joe Root believes England's batsmen need to follow the lead of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes if they are to bounce back from defeat to India at Trent Bridge.

After winning the first two Tests, England were outclassed by the tourists, falling 203 runs short - largely thanks to a dismal first innings in which Root's men were bowled out for 161.

That gave England a mountain to climb, although Buttler - recording his first Test century - and Stokes combined for 169 in a composed showing at odds with the rest of the batting group.

And Root acknowledges that the rest of the team must learn from the pair, who showed the requisite temperament to succeed in the long form game.

"I think it's fair to say we very much underperformed in that [first] innings," he said in the post-match presentation.

"You look at the second innings and that partnership between Jos and Ben and that's a real lesson to our side in how to play Test match cricket.

"It's not the fact that they scored a low rate or looked slightly more defensively minded but the way they adapted to that situation, built that partnership and looked very clear about how they were going to go and score their runs. That's a really nice thing for us to see.

"We have to look at that, adapt our own games individually and make sure that, when we turn up at Southampton, we give ourselves the best chance of getting scores of over 400, doing it in the first innings and trying to apply that scoreboard pressure that is so important in Test cricket."

Stokes returned for the third Test in place of Sam Curran, while Buttler's selection has not always been universally popular, but Root stands by the team he picked for the match in Nottingham.

"I don't think [there are any regrets]," he said. "It's a strong England team when you look down the card.

"It was always going to be a difficult decision, because the guys who were unfortunate to miss out had obviously done extremely well throughout the series until now."

While England have work to do with the bat, they also continue to be let down by drops in the slips, with Root insisting the players are hard at work to eradicate the issues.

"We're working extremely hard on it. It's an area we know is massively important in this game," he said. "It's not worked out how we'd like until now.

"It's something we'll continue to keep working hard on to make sure we give ourselves the best chance for our bowlers. If we get it right, we know that it will pay massive dividends and give us a really good chance of winning the game."