England v India: third men’s cricket Test, day two – live

Morning everyone and welcome to the second day of this historical re-enactment. After spending three years trying to make Test cricket exciting, with a fair amount of success, England have suddenly given up and gone back to the 1950s.

Yesterday was the 56th time they had scored 200 in an innings under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and by far the slowest. They pottered along at 3.02 runs an over. (Even at Ranchi early last year, when Ben Foakes was still on board, they managed 3.36.) And the slowest scorer of all was the captain, who faced 102 balls and hit only three of them for four. Even if he is fit for the next Test, Stokes may have to drop himself for slow scoring.

Perhaps it was the heat. As Paul Simon almost sang, it was a slow day, and the sun was beating on the punters by the side of the field. Perhaps it was the effect of Shubman Gill, who has so spooked England that they now want to play like him. Perhaps it was the return of Jasprit Bumrah, who has the same effect Queen Elizabeth II used to have on her visits to Lord’s – making everyone try too hard to behave properly.

The forecast today is for more of the same. I just hope it doesn’t apply to the batting.