India v England: fifth Test, day one – live

Hello and welcome to live coverage of the fifth and final Test between India and England in Dharamsala. This is a match with a split identity: a dead rubber; a celebration of Jonny Bairstow, Ravichandran Ashwin and Jimmy Anderson; a source of World Test Championship points; a travelogue with a bit of cricket chucked in; and, given the exceedingly chilly conditions, a warm-up for the county season.

One thing it’s not, alas, is a series decider. India’s mighty comeback in Ranchi gave them an unassailable 3-1 lead, and they are strongish favourites to win this game. England’s young bold soldiers probably don’t deserve to lose 4-1, but then nor did India when they toured England in 2018. No team has ever batted so aggressively against India in India, and a win in Dharamsala would make this … not a moral victory, let’s not go there, but maybe a qualified triumph. As Brendon McCullum said in rather different circumstances at Lord’s last summer, 3-2 has a nice ring to it.

It’s bloody hard to win any Test in India; it’s even harder to win a dead rubber. India have only lost one at home in their entire history, against Australia at Bengaluru in 1997-98. They don’t play as many as you might think, just 16 overall, but there has been a pattern to the recent ones: opponents arrive for the final Test beaten and broken, their bodies on the field and their souls in the departure lounge.

It feels like this England side are a bit different, and they have been bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the build-up. But there’s only one truly reliable window into the soul of a cricket team. It begins at 4am GMT, 9.30am in Dharamsala.