Perhaps the first sign of the classical day of Test cricket that lay ahead was the sight of Sachin Tendulkar, immaculately wrapped in a double-breasted jacket, ringing the five-minute bell before play. This was an old-school day that the Little Master would surely have luxuriated in during his playing days, a good – if slightly slow – surface providing enough to encourage batter and bowler and England eschewing some of their extravagant electronica to harmonise with India on a gentler, more melodic tune.
To what extent was England’s abandonment of their ultra-attacking dogma a reaction to their defeat at Edgbaston? It is a tricky question to answer given how well India’s attack operated and far from benign conditions, seam and spin on offer to quench the bowlers’ thirst at last in a series in which batters had thus far guzzled.
