India hold up a mirror to England's Test tendencies

There was very little reaction from Ben Stokes. Ravichandran Ashwin changed ends and came on to bowl just one over before Lunch, and snuck a slider in between Stokes's bat and pad to leave England five down. There was more a sigh of sheer helplessness than an emotive shrug for being dismissed, perhaps a resignation to the fact that even a 3-2 outcome was a pipe dream.

You could put Stokes's exit down to multiple factors - the cunning use of variations from a 100-Test, 500-wicket spin veteran and the England captain's own form this series and his vulnerability to play spin. But England shouldn't have had him in the middle so early on the day to begin with. Three out of the four wickets that fell before Stokes exposed the cracks that have developed under the surface of Bazball through their month-and-a-half-long ordeal in India.

There's no two ways about India currently being among the toughest places to play away Tests in. But the quick turn of events on the third morning for England was more self-inflicted. Even with a sizeable deficit, England batters had the best opportunity to take a leaf out of