If England felt they had got a leg-up in the fourth Test due to their first innings score of 400, India’s batsmen got them rudely down to Earth by demonstrating, in the brief passage of play, that they would not be giving their wickets away cheaply.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja got England’s last two wickets out cheaply after tea but not before England got to the magic 400 mark. India’s opening pair of KL Rahul and Murali Vijay though, looked solid and even aggressive. England’s pacers got almost nothing off the surface as Rahul, making a return after the Vizag Test, creamed some boundaries to move to a 41-ball 24.

Alastair Cook soon turned to spin and Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid asked a few questions. Ali, in particular, finally got the first breakthrough, getting Rahul to drive through the covers and the ball sneaking through the huge gap to have him dismissed. That did not bother Vijay though, who hit a four and then a six in the next over to show England that they were not looking at an easy collapse.

The other factor that will worry England is that Ali and Rashid have asked the same sort of questions that Ashwin and Jadeja did for India. The gap of quality might indicate the way this Test will go because if India even go marginally near England’s total, they will back themselves to win.

Brief scores:

India 62/1 (Murali Vijay 31 not out, KL Rahul 24; Moeen Ali 1/22) trail England 400 (Keaton Jennings 112, Jos Buttler 76; Ravichandran Ashwin 6/112, Ravindra Jadeja 4/109) by 338 runs