Which brings the question back to how did this Indian team that did not have certified stars like Virat Kohli or Mohammed Shami, that lost KL Rahul due to injury, that missed Ravindra Jadeja for a match, that lost the first Test and let England take 1-0 lead, came to Visakhapatnam and turned a new leaf to win three on the trot? When they sealed the series in Ranchi, the Test cap ratio between England and India’s playing XIs was 2.27.

If this is not invincible, what is, you may ask? Invincible is just too simple a term to define what India have achieved in this series. First up, they were caught off guard in Hyderabad. They needed the genius of Jasprit Bumrah and Yashasvi Jaiswal in Visakhapatnam. And even in Rajkot, after two days, it seemed like England were in a better position to take a 2-1 lead.

But here is the thing with all those sessions and phases of dominance by the visiting team — where it might seem like India are losing their plot.  Every time they were in such a situation, there was one person who knew what to do and take up the job. Mohammed Siraj’s reverse swing followed by Jaiswal’s double in Rajkot. And then, R Ashwin, who had left for a personal emergency, came back and contributed to the team’s win.

At Ranchi, on a pitch that seemed like evil, but played out without many demons in it, Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav played with purpose before the genius of Ashwin came to the fore. Rohit Sharma and India have found solutions during such testing moments.

These are elite athletes who are very much aware of the dominance their team possesses at home. And having played a part in it, they know how much it means and what they need to do to prolong the legacy. Their desire to contribute and the high they get from a Test series win is almost addictive. Jurel, who missed his first Test hundred, did not blink twice before saying, “I want to lift the trophy first.” There is a tradition of debutants lifting the trophy. And these athletes are more skilled in these conditions than anyone visiting. They can adapt on the go, like Ashwin did in Ranchi, and still continue to outplay opponents without even giving them a chance.

More than anything else, they are also aware of what is at stake. The last time they lost a series at home, there were calls for a captaincy change. “…if you win at home, not a lot is spoken about, ‘oh no India is supposed to win at home’. If you don’t, then I know what happens as well but yeah…clearly every series win, whichever team you play against, whenever you play, Test series win is a Test series win no matter the conditions or the country you play in,” Rohit would say before explaining why this one was sweeter because of the youngsters who are part of this team.

There is still one more game to go in Dharamsala, and there is a chance that England might actually win that match. No one is denying that India cannot lose a Test match at home. However, what one can say for sure is that no team is coming to India and beating them over a course of a three or more Test match series. And if any team manages to do that in this decade, that would go down as one of the greatest achievements of this century.