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Ollie Pope began this series with one of the great Test innings but is in danger of ending it barely looking as if he can score a run. They are extremes of form that leave England’s next captain in waiting still with something to prove in Dharamshala this week.

When Pope made that remarkable 196, full of Bazball audacity but also textbook orthodoxy, in the first Test comeback victory it appeared he had finally erased any doubts about his worthiness as Stokes eventual successor.

But, three Tests on and with a three-ball pair in Ranchi behind him, Pope’s need for a score is one of the many sub-plots that make England’s visit to the foothills of the Himalayas on Thursday 3-1 down to India anything but a dead-rubber.

It is at the start of his innings that the Surrey man continues to look vulnerable, all frenetic and skittish, and even in Hyderabad he could have fallen without scoring reverse-sweeping before going on to that second innings epic.

If Pope really is to go on to become England’s next great batsman it is a vulnerability he must conquer, as coach Brendon McCullum acknowledged while comparing the vice-captain to two great poor starters from the past.