At the start of day five in Rajkot, the general wonderment was about whether England would declare at all. And if they did, what would be the requisite time to do so? The consensus was one hour after lunch, with 300-odd on the board, and 50 overs to play. It would make for a playful target, certainly for Virat Kohli, who, at least when it comes to white-ball cricket, chases as if sleepwalking.

The difference though is in format. One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals have several factors put in place to not hinder the bowler as much, but to enhance run scoring. Field placements, fixed number of overs, and not to mention the nature of the pitch mostly does not undergo a seachange in just 100 (never mind 40) overs.

Test cricket, in comparison, is infinite. It is seen in the unpredictable nature of a fifth day pitch, in the ball exploding off the wicket after a spinner lands it in the rough, or when the pacer puts all his magical powers and reverses it. It is realised in the manner five men crowd the batsman, as that elusive nick is anticipated. It is witnessed in a 310-run chase in 49 overs, when you are struggling at 71/4.

Pining for Rohit Sharma

Let it be said here that India never had a shot of chasing this target down. Especially when they lost Gautam Gambhir for a duck, followed by Cheteshwar Pujara before tea. When Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed cheaply for a second time in this match, India were left pining for Rohit Sharma. That tells a lot about their batting composition, and that they had to rely on Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – in partnership with Kohli of course – to save the match.

Let it also be said here that England got the declaration right. “I thought it was a fair declaration. Maybe we could have declared a bit earlier, but obviously we didn’t want to give India a sniff. A braver person might have declared on 240, but on the same pitch we were 180/0,” said Alastair Cook after the day’s play.

This is a team that took a beating in Dhaka – literally and mentally. The latter is a more important factor when you consider that they were next coming up against the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja, with Amit Mishra thrown in for good measure.

Then, there was the small matter of the Rajkot pitch. “I was surprised by the grass on the pitch. There shouldn’t have been so much grass on it,” said Kohli. He was not complaining as such, rather reflecting on why this wicket did not deteriorate through the five days as much as a typical Indian pitch has this season (refer the New Zealand series).

England did not know this bit either. Through the five days, at the end of play, players from both sides admitted that they expected the pitch to take more turn and variable bounce to affect the batsmen more. However, through days three to five, it was only in the last session that we saw the ball take some more turn and aid the spinners as it wore down after three sessions on each day.

Simply put, the grass in good areas of the pitch did not allow it to wear enough to produce a result. While the visitors were ignorant about this, the hosts were caught unaware. It explains why we watched a high-scoring draw – albeit with an intense finish – through five days.

Playing for time

That “intense finish” comes under scrutiny at this juncture. Once India had lost their full-time batsmen, with only Kohli left at the crease, there was still more than an hour to play. It was a matter of batting out time, not the Indian line-up’s forte against spin in recent times.

“It was a matter of challenging ourselves to the situation and bat it out, adapting to the situation even whilst playing your shots. We wanted to play percentage cricket, and this is what I told Jadeja,” said Kohli.

“We have either been winning or losing. Finally, we have learnt how to draw a match,” he added, with a wry smile.

It was perhaps in reference to the embarrassing loss on a day four raging turner in Galle last year, or even Adelaide in 2014 when Kohli himself pushed the team towards victory but failed.

Both of these defeats have been a massive learning experience for Kohli the skipper. There is rarely a Test match that passes through wherein he does not refer to either of these matches – Galle in particular – when discussing team selection. The same thought had lingered in his mind when picking the eleven for this game, and the unexpectedly good pitch allowed him to trust Ashwin’s batting abilities against a six-pronged English bowling attack.

England win the spinners’ battle

As it turns out, in both innings, Ashwin played a handsome role with the bat. This is not about his batting though, instead his bowling figures. In fact, it is about the return of the three Indian spinners. Ashwin, Mishra and Jadeja together took nine wickets in this first Test.

In comparison, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Zafar Ansari together took 13 wickets.

“No I don’t think they out-bowled our spinners. They bowled well, but so did our spinners. If their spinners had out-bowled our spinners, then England would have won the match,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference.

That the Indian skipper had to categorically clarify this speaks volumes of the visitors’ performance. Since last year when South Africa were waylaid by doctored pitches, and since West Indies and New Zealand were brushed aside with disdain, for the first time, Kohli and his boys played against a truly strong opponent and came up short.

It is the underlying point. On the back of their drawn series in Bangladesh, and lack of preparation, plus India’s superb form in the run-in, England came to Rajkot as underdogs. Here, they outscored India with glee, did not lose 20 wickets to Kohli’s pet five-bowler theory, put pressure on the hosts all through these five days, and were just four wickets away from a stunning victory.

The scorecard might not reflect so, but England will go to Visakhapatnam psychologically 1-0 up.

Brief scores:

England 537 (Ben Stokes 128, Joe Root 124, Moeen Ali 117; Ravindra Jadeja 3/86, Mohammed Shami 2/65, R Ashwin 2/167) and 260/3 declared (Alastair Cook 130, Haseeb Hameed 92; Amit Mishra 2/60) drew with India 488 (Murali Vijay 126, Cheteshwar Pujara 124; Adil Rashid 4/114, Zafar Ansari 2/77, Moeen Ali 2/85) and 172/6 (Virat Kohli 49 not out, Ravichandran Ashwin 32; Adil Rashid 1/64, Zafar Ansari 1/41)