India, Nov. 24 -- The myth is shattered. And India have still not lost yet. A second home series defeat in just over a year is on the horizon though, plainly because India have been playing a brand of cricket no one can relate to.

Not a brand really, more like a commotion of half-baked, atrociously executed ideas. One that prompts fiddling with pitches, packing elevens with allrounders to increase batting depth, changing batting orders in consecutive Tests, everything apart from what really matters-batting as if their lives depended on it.

Rishabh Pant gave the charge to Marco Jansen like he was finally ready to shift gears after biding his time. Fact is he had only batted seven balls. Sai Sudharsan faced 40 balls on his comeback inning...