After successive drubbings, England have acquired the losing streaks of their recent forebears in India, despite being better prepared this time for the country and its cricketers. Their losing habit is nothing new. One victory in their last 15 one-day internationals on Indian soil is a woeful record that even Alastair Campbell might struggle to put some forward spin on, though that has not prevented Samit Patel, one of England’s tweakers on tour, from having a go.

“We’ve not played to the potential we can, which is quite difficult to take knowing we smashed India at home,” Patel said on Tuesday, with as much gung-ho as he could muster. “I know if we play to our best we’ll be too strong for them.”

With three more matches to play in the space of five days, England need to find their ‘A’ game pretty soon if they are to have any chance of tempering the Diwali celebrations that follow a day after the final match in Kolkata. Yet, that is the whole point of India; it gets under your skin despite the five-star carapace modern teams thrown around them, and stops you finding your best, something evident in England’s under-performance across all three disciplines.

“It’s always frustrating when people get starts with the bat and don’t go on to a big score,” said Patel with reference to the 30s and 40s (he made 42) made by England’s batsmen in Delhi. “We got a lesson from Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, who made 122 and 84 respectively, and we can learn from how they played. “They have a lot of skill but we believe we have a massive amount of skill in our dressing room. We’re not a million miles away and we’ve got to bring it to the next match in Mohali - it’s a must-win game for us.”