'Boy' becomes a man but England come up short - Chris Waters

Sadly for England, and through no fault of his, they were not quite able to get over the line.

Once again, India stood tall at the pivotal moment, closing out a 3-1 series triumph with one Test to play as they eased home, ultimately, by five wickets.

At 120-5 chasing 192, after Bashir had taken two wickets in two balls shortly after lunch on day four on just his second Test appearance, it was anyone’s game, with the hosts having slipped from 84-0.

But another man making just his second Test appearance, wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, struck an unbeaten 39 to go with his first innings 90, a man-of-the-match performance that saw India home in the company of Shubman Gill (52), with whom he shared an unbroken partnership of 72.

A comparative veteran at the age of 23, Jurel looks to be a real find for India - just as Bashir looks to be a real find for England.

It was Jurel’s eighth-wicket stand of 76 with Kuldeep Yadav in the first innings, which rescued his side from 177-7 in reply to England’s 353, and helped to keep the eventual deficit to a manageable 46, that turned the contest around for India while Bashir was advancing to his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Both young players betrayed no sign of nerves - not even in the pressure of the fourth-innings chase.

What is it about the young ‘uns these days? Nothing seems to faze them or knock them off their stride.

Much of Bashir’s confidence, no doubt, came from Ben Stokes, who plucked him like a rabbit from the hat to make the tour in the first place.

Bashir, you may recall, had taken only 10 wickets in six first-class appearances and then had all of the hoo-hah surrounding his delayed visa.

You can see why India didn’t want to let him in the country; he now has 12 wickets in two Tests to justify Stokes’s and England’s hunch that his height and bounce would prove to be a handful.

Only Tom Hartley - another green spinner who has done himself proud - has taken more wickets for the tourists (20 in four Tests).

Ultimately, the only statistic that counts in professional sport is the final result, and England will have mixed feelings heading towards the fifth Test in Dharamsala, which starts on Thursday week.

For the second successive series, they have squandered good opportunities against a leading side, having let Australia off the hook in last summer’s Ashes.

India have been without some key players here - Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Rishabh Pant.

They even got away with the curious decision - one that smacked of hubris - to rest their leading pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah for this match with the series still alive, although a refreshed Bumrah will give them a great opportunity to make it 4-1 next month.

After throwing away a decent position in the third Test in Rajkot, England paid in Ranchi for a second innings collapse from 110-3 to 145 all-out, before some poor bowling from their spinners initially allowed India to get off to a flyer in the chase - 40-0 from just eight overs heading into day four.

There was never likely to be any way back from that point, although Bashir did his best to dig them out of the hole.

Results do count - otherwise, what is the point of these highly-paid, no-stone-left-unturned high performance environments that are now all the rage?

This was England’s third successive Test defeat after the high of victory in the first game in Hyderabad, and their third successive Test series without a win.

Not since December 2022, in fact, when they won in Pakistan have the Bazballers got on the right side of the end result, and there is only so long that you can parrot the old cliche that results are not the be-all and end-all.

For all the positives of Bazball, and there are many (the exhilarating cricket, the imaginative captaincy, the infectious culture of fun and enjoyment), the frustration for England is that the score could easily be 3-1 the other way.

You don’t get too many chances to beat India in India - especially with so many big-name players absent for the home team, with England, in contrast, without only Harry Brook.

In this match, that second innings collapse was key and did not give Bashir and Hartley enough runs to work with, while Ollie Robinson’s drop of Jurel on 59 in the India first innings was another big moment in a tough game for him all round.

Bazball is great, a breath of fresh air, but to be a truly top team, England will know that they have to beat the best.