In the summer of 2014, when India toured England, Ravi Shastri, the coach, told me, “if we could be prepared to get dirty, look ugly, we could win. Get ready to get your hands dirty and look ugly in the quest for excellence.”

This defeat in the World Test Championship shows that Indian players on the field of play want to keep their hands so clean that at times they bat as if they would like to get rid of the bat as soon as possible, lest holding it would stain their delicate, well-manicured, fingers. Even in terms of some historic Indian batting collapses, and as a fan since the 1950s I have seen some awful ones, Sunday was quite abysmal. India went from 212 for five at 11:55 am to be all out for 234 by 12:37 pm. Five wickets falling for 22 runs in 43 minutes. As the wickets clattered the joke in the press box was whether we would make it to lunch and miss out on the excellent meals ICC have been providing.