England could scarcely have been made to feel more welcome: the walls of the team hotel are plastered with posters of their recent feats under Ben Stokes. One reads “Let’s unfold victory!” – a kind of reverse origami that, if achieved in the captain’s 100th Test, would secure a 2-1 lead over India with two to play.
Then there is the fact that one of their 30-strong touring party, Rehan Ahmed, could easily have been turned away at the nearly built Rajkot Airport on Monday evening. Returning from the team’s mid-tour break in Abu Dhabi, the leg-spinner unwittingly hit the tarmac with a single-entry visa that had expired by virtue of having left the country.
