RAJKOT: It had been 14 overs since the start of play on Saturday at the Niranjan Shah Stadium. For the first time in the day, Mohammed Siraj was marking his run-up.

At this point, England 40 runs to the overnight total of 207/2, but it had come at a cost — both Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow were back in the dressing room. A cost, that many would say they could have avoided.

Root, as he has a lot since Brendon McCullum took over as head coach, went for one of his reverse scoops, this time, against Jasprit Bumrah. The end result, a leading edge ended in the hands of Yashasvi Jaiswal in the slip cordon. A few balls later, Bairstow was caught on the backfoot against Kuldeep Yadav and was trapped on the pads. From starting the day with a bowler short — R Ashwin had to head home because of a family medical emergency — India had found a way to reestablish the fact that they still have four world-class bowlers.

Bumrah, from one end, and Kuldeep, from the other, constantly tested and troubled Ben Duckett and Root despite going for close to three runs an over. Bumrah had induced quite a few edges with his slower ones, and Kuldeep looked like getting a wicket every time England batters were trying to go on the backfoot or defend him. Such was the slowness of the surface that the edges didn’t carry and even if they were caught off guard, the batters had enough time to adjust and get to safety. And once they lost two quick wickets, Ben Stokes had come in and shut shop at one end. He was in his own zone, kept defending or leaving. It was not until his 27th ball, Stokes showed an intent to hit a boundary of a loose delivery from Kuldeep. He couldn’t connect that one but made up for it by tonking the spinner down the ground off the very next delivery.

Now, this is when Bumrah was given a break and Siraj was brought in. Until this point, Siraj has had a forgettable series, leave alone spell. In the first game, which was at his hometown, Siraj had gone wicketless. On this surface in Rajkot, without Ashwin, India needed Siraj to step up. The other three could not do the heavy lifting alone. However, up against a Stokes who had got his eye on, Siraj had little respite. He was flicked and pulled early on, and despite a rather lucky breakthrough for Kuldeep against Duckett (153), England coasted to safety at lunch (285/5).