England channel Joe Root's apprehension as India turn the lights off

NICK HOWSON: Virat Kohli's men capitalised on scrambled minds and uncertain plans, while the tourists are left to reflect on a series that is all but over

India v England: 3rd Test scorecard

Guarded Joe Root coy over England's hopes ahead of third India Test

If sports teams do indeed embody the spirit of their captain then England perfectly reflected the body language of their leader Joe Root, whose uncertainty heading into the third Test rubbed off on the tourists as India took a commanding grip on the series on day one.

From deciphering pre-match conditions to the selection of his team, Root has treaded cautiously in the lead-up to this Test. Everything from the structure of the XI to the non-existence approach has gone wrong. And it looks to have cost them.

What took 94 minutes in Auckland and 45 in Adelaide lasted an hour in Ahmedabad.

New Zealand eviscerated England in March 2018 as the tourists were dismissed for 58 in the opening morning.

In December 2020, India recorded their lowest Test score in the second, bowled out for 36 by Australia.

^{Indian celebrations were a key image of the day}

And in the space of 60 minutes on either side of the afternoon tea interval, England were left flushed by the pink ball again. Six wickets fell for 24 runs and just like that, their hopes and dreams faded.

Ambitions in this Test are done, their hopes of winning the series essentially over and the WTC final an event for which they will need a TV subscription.

Despite the remarkable first Test victory in Chennai, there has always been a feeling that the series has been building to this moment. A passage of play where the real India would turn up and blow away their opponents like all visitors since 2012 have been.

This performance highlights quite how remarkable that 2-1 success under Sir Alastair Cook, inspired by Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann nine years ago, was.

Virat Kohli dismissed the idea of another rapid collapsed for either side in these conditions, but Root was far more receptive. Indeed, it was one of the few things he was certain about. He challenged his side to ensure they wouldn't become another unwanted statistic. They failed to respond.

"I think there's been a trend in all the pink-ball Test matches of collapses on occasion," he said on the eve of the game. "It's something as a batting group you need to make sure you stop"

^{It was certainly a day for Virat Kohli}

There has been an unsettled feeling surrounding Root and England leading into this Test, and that has bled into the performance. Maybe that is some of that is bubble fatigue, which would be understandable.

Their joint-most successful Test captain looked flustered and anxious from the outset, even at the toss after he'd called correctly in the air.

Granted, this is what India in home conditions with 40,000 fans on your back can do to you. But Root's body language in the days leading up to the match and on the opening afternoon were uncharacteristic. He inserted England, but with little confidence.

That mindset appeared to influence England's performance on day one. Bar the brilliant Zak Crawley and dogged Ben Foakes, their batsmen looked tentative and lacked conviction in defence. Put simply, they didn't play the line of the deliveries sent their way.

None played inexplicable shots, but neither did they play strokes of meaning. Joe Root and Ollie Pope were neither forward, nor back. Dom Sibley looked unsettled by the ball hooping around and Jonny Bairstow and Crawley were done by straight deliveries. The less said about Jofra Archer's approach, probably the better.

Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled with beautiful consistency in the first two sessions but the tourists were as troubled by balls that didn't do anything off the pitch, than by ones that did.

Minds have been scrambled and while this pitch didn't turn and grip like on day one of the second Test in Chennai, it might as well have.

England's preparation has been fraught with problems for largely unavoidable reasons. And this was the first time it looked to have genuinely impacted negatively on their performance. Players have come and gone but there is plenty of talent there, albeit some that do not have ample experience in these surroundings.

So much has been made about Root and coach Chris Silverwood having developed a blueprint for how England should play. If Chennai was confirmation of that strategy, this was surely the opposite. It wasn't that plans were executed poorly, more that there didn't appear to be one at all.

Root hasn't become a bad leader overnight. We are still just a few weeks departed from one of the great overseas Test successes. No England skipper has won more. And in the current climate, it is important to judge individuals through the prism of bio-secure bubbles and hotel rooms.

If the away side didn't already know fortunes were against them, they certainly did when Shubman Gill escaped being given not out off Stuart Broad, as TV umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin ruled out the dismissal after consulting a single replay from one angle. Root cut a dejected and frustrated figure as he complained to the off-field officials. Things haven't gone his way.

When the lights went off on two occasions temporarily in the final two sessions it felt like an analogy for England's prospects in this series. This was the day their hopes of beating India blew a fuse.

Images courtesy of BCCI

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