This England team have each other’s backs so when Ben Duckett sat in front of the dictaphones after stumps on the third evening in Rajkot – a day later than his century deserved – it was inevitable that he would leap to the defence of Joe Root.
Unfortunately for Duckett, Root was among the chief talking points on the English side of the ledger. His attempted reverse scoop off Jasprit Bumrah in the morning continued an uncharacteristic run of low scores, the trigger for England handing India the advantage with a collapse of eight for 95 in just over two hours.
