Until Saturday, Ollie Pope’s relationship with Jasprit Bumrah was best summed up by the sight of two flattened stumps as he scrambled to keep his footing.
The relevance of that image from last year’s series on the subcontinent faded with every run off Pope’s bat at Headingley, however, as he survived Bumrah’s 88-mile-per-hour missiles – including one that flew off the edge through the vacant third slip region to bring up a 64-ball 50 – to bring up a ninth Test hundred shortly before the close.
Until this absorbing battle, Pope had averaged just 24.6 against India despite hitting 196 in a single innings, but here he took the chance to justify his retention at No 3 ahead of rising star Jacob Bethell, placing England on much firmer ground than they could have imagined when play resumed on the second morning.
In the build-up, Ben Stokes claimed dropping his vice-captain would be ‘ridiculous’ given his recent record, and overcoming Bumrah’s barrage – after walking to the crease following Zak Crawley’s first-over dismissal – provided further credence to the claim.
There was one moment of good fortune when, on 60, Yashasvi Jaiswal shelled a chance at third slip off Bumrah soon after Ben Duckett became the India fast bowler’s second victim of the innings. But he deserved some luck after dealing with an initial new-ball examination in very different conditions to those a raucous Headingley witnessed 24 hours earlier.
The Leeds weather, frazzling on Friday, became an ally to England on day two as the sun was overtaken by gloom and although England took more than an hour to separate overnight centurions Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, once they did, India fell in a heap, losing their final seven wickets for 41 runs.
England therefore went into a reply delayed three quarters of an hour by early afternoon drizzle with victory hopes remaining intact.
Yes, they had conceded 471 after opting to bowl first, but that is small beer compared to what has been overcome during the Bazball era. Three times wins have been achieved after opponents have posted 550-plus and India stacked up 436 prior to Pope’s heroics in Hyderabad last January.
As he walked off unbeaten on 100 in a score of 209 for three he did so in the knowledge that modern Headingley surfaces get better not worse and that despite a listless beginning pre-lunch and the loss of Joe Root late on, England have moved themselves into a position from which to develop another escape to victory.
He will have Harry Brook for company when play resumes thanks to a dramatic reprieve for the hometown hero in the final over of the evening: Bumrah denied a fourth wicket, via a top-edged pull, courtesy of over-stepping.
Negotiating Bumrah’s burst following a night’s rest feels vital. In India’s polarised attack, it is a different game every time he gets the ball in his hands.
England’s bowling also featured a stand-out operator and there was a strong argument for Stokes taking the ball himself on the second morning, instead of throwing it to his senior man Chris Woakes as India resumed on 359 for three.
The big question hanging over Woakes’ head on his comeback from an ankle injury has been whether he can make next winter’s Ashes, but an anaemic first outing with the ball here might lead to a change in the narrative. More performances like this – conceding three figures in going wicketless – will jeopardise the chances of a bowler suddenly looking all of his 36 years surviving this series.
A long half-volley in Woakes’ second over from the Kirkstall Lane End was eased to the long-off boundary, taking Shubman Gill beyond his previous career-best score of 128 on the occasion of his Indian Test captaincy debut.
The overall lack of threat in the opening hour revealed itself in Stokes removing a traditional slip cordon and re-deploying fielders at leg slip, gully and at various strategic points on the drive.
But India’s fourth-wicket pair skilfully threaded deliveries into other gaps during the latter stages of their 209-run alliance, most audaciously when Pant met the introduction of Shoaib Bashir with a kayak roll of a shot, flipping the ball over his shoulder as he hit the deck. Later in the over, the third of Pant’s six sixes – thrashed via short-arm jab into the western terrace – brought up India’s 400.
His fourth – a one-handed swipe over midwicket – took him to a 146-ball hundred, his seventh in Tests, and triggered a showman’s celebration: dropping his helmet and bat, he executed a perfect somersault. Of course, he did.
He was toying with England’s attack at this stage, and even miscues were finding their way over boundary catchers – a sprawling Brydon Carse left groping at thin air at long-off later in the over.
But a piece of over-exuberance from Gill, needlessly picking out deep square leg off Bashir, ceded India’s momentum and with cloud cover rolling in, England pounced.
Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur were both suckered into drives off Stokes either side of Tongue pinning Pant leg before with a delivery that veered past the inside edge, a dismissal that meant Jamie Smith’s missed stumping cost only 10 runs.
Thakur’s dismissal signalled lunch with India on 454 for seven, but their collapse gathered pace upon the resumption as Tongue in particular extracted lavish swing and seam movement under the floodlights.
Then, it was over to his Nottinghamshire colleague Ben Duckett, who struck 62 in a second-wicket stand of 122, and man-of-the-moment Pope to build on what was an extraordinary turnaround.