Rishabh Pant put on a spectacular exhibition of mind over matter, overcoming the pain barrier to address the needs of his team, but India’s pace bowlers failed to take a leaf out of their admirable vice-captain’s playbook on Thursday.

Reverse sweep gone wrong

Driven off Old Trafford on Day One of the first Test after under-edging a reverse sweep onto his right foot, the left-hander came out to bat an hour and a half into play on the second morning, at the fall of Shardul Thakur’s wicket. Hobbling and limping but refusing to throw in the towel, Pant converted his overnight 37 into a memorable half-century, the third of the innings as India finished on 358, which appeared a reasonable total on a two-paced track of variable bounce.

Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley then tore into the Indian fast bowlers, guilty of bowling too straight and being picked off for a series of leg-side boundaries, first by the left-handed Duckett and then with increasing authority by his right-handed partner, who came into this Test with a cloud hanging over his head. Apart from his second-innings half-century in Leeds, the tall Crawley had done little of note, but once India allowed him to get off to a start, the trademark cover-drives started to flow at the same venue where he brought up his last World Test Championship century, 189 against Australia more than two years back.