They say that amid darkness, one should always find time to look for the light, and in a brief passage in the Himalayan afternoon, England found small, almost comic, relief from their mauling.
Back bowling for the first time since last summer’s Ashes, Ben Stokes, inevitably, took only one ball to strike, castling Rohit Sharma and drawing chuckles of disbelief, mixed with absolute expectation, from those who have seen this sort of nonsense too many times before.
The scene, though, rather summed up the state of England’s unravelling in the final throes of this tour: in a place of such deep spirituality, playing cricket in the Dalai Lama’s garden, only the enactment of a fridge magnet slogan could provide any sort of hope.
A 699th Test wicket for James Anderson followed in the very next over, Shubman Gill the man to fall, but by then both he and Rohit had strummed sublime, serene centuries to take India, replying to England’s 218, into the lead before lunch on day two.
Afternoon fifties from Sarfaraz Khan and Devdutt Padikkal helped swell the score to 473 for eight by stumps, an advantage already of 255.
The wicket of the free-wheeling Yashasvi Jaiswal offered England’s only breakthrough on the evening of day one, after the tourists had botched first use of an excellent surface with a quite spectacular collapse.
India, though, have made a habit of compounding England’s batting frailties at first opportunity and picked up this morning in ungenerous form.
Gill and Rohit struck sixes off Anderson and Shoaib Bashir, two quiet overs at the top of a punishing first hour quickly followed by two that cost 24 combined. Undue risk, though, was a rare and genuine fright even more so, the only scare coming when Rohit turned Bashir around the corner but too quickly for Zak Crawley to react at leg-slip.
Early in the series, India’s senior batters had been almost as wasteful as England’s, relying on the ruthlessness of Jaiswal to take full advantage of the tourists’ novice spin attack.
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This, though, was two of the country’s kingpins determined to establish their rule; Rohit’s patient hundred brought up from 154 deliveries; and Gill slog-sweeping to the boundary for his more flourishing version two balls later, from just 137.
Stokes had flirted with the idea of an early return to bowling ahead of the Fourth Test, having surprised himself and his medics with the manner of his rejuvenation since knee surgery before Christmas. That soft plan, though, never came to be, and with the series already gone, the assumption was that all-round duties were back on hold until the summer, as initially billed.
The skipper’s lunchtime warm-up told a different story, his introduction perhaps a surprising gamble with the Test already looking a lost cause, but clearly felt a necessary one with the attack otherwise out of ideas.
The comeback ball, his first since Australia’s second innings at Lord’s in June, was a beauty, nipping past the outside edge to claim Rohit’s off-stump. An over later, Anderson produced a similar peach, this time reverse-swinging back through the gate to send Gill packing on 110.
For the first time all day, England were up and about it, and Stokes briefly down and head in hands, a chance to hold Sarfaraz off his own bowling on two shelled. The no-ball siren, though, meant the batter would have been off the hook either way.
And hook he did, taking on Wood’s short-ball in a barrage that swiftly stamped out any hope the small opening in India’s middle-order might become an England-esque crack.
Wood, recalled in expectation his pace and Dharamshala’s thin air might prove a potent combination, saw his 15 overs pumped at almost a run-a-ball.
Bashir, too, was taken apart in phases, but on an unhelpful surface the young spinner battled on, claiming another four first-innings wickets, including that of Sarfaraz with the first ball after tea.
India, though, have exposed the class chasm as a once-competitive series has worn on, Bashir’s scalps expensive and Tom Hartley negated with relative ease until the wicket, ominously, began to turn late in the day.
The wheels do not tend to come off quite so freely with this England team as some of its predecessors, and they chipped away, though the scars of their toil were visible elsewhere, some very average ground fielding on display.
A long tour is almost over and its finale, despite England’s perseverance, is heading only one way.