Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live, over-by-over coverage of the third day of the third Test in Rajkot. Who knew a 3am alarm could sound so sweet? This England team are reversing the norms of life, never mind Test cricket, with their swashbuckling ability to go toe-to-toe with the world’s best teams. They will resume on 207 for two, a deficit on 248, with Ben Duckett resuming on 133 not out. He played an astonishing innings, which had the eccentric certainty of Steve Smith and the savage scoring rate of Virender Sehwag. He may never play better in his life.
“Ben Duckett is a phenomenal talent so credit to him, he’s made a wonderful hundred,” said India’s Ravichandran Ashwin, who tormented Duckett when he last toured in 2016-17. “I wanted to clap, but the hardcore competitor in me didn’t allow me to clap, but I’m very happy for Ben.
”I would have really loved to bowl at him when he was not at 60-70 runs. He is a very different player to bowl at when he is on nought. A couple of his shots, the slog sweeps were really, really special.”
Ashwin, who took his 500th Test wicket when he dismissed Zak Crawley, pulled out of the Test overnight due to a family emergency. That increases England’s chances of a famous victory, but they still have a long way to go. Today is the mid-point of this five-match series; it may well decide who goes on to win it.