The up-and-down nature of the pitch from the first day itself came as a surprise to the Indian team, said the bowing coach.

Prior to the fourth Test, Ollie Pope and Ben Stokes had been vocal about the look of the pitch to be used for the Ranchi Test match. There were enough cracks already, even before a single ball had been bowled and the visitors were clearly expecting a pitch that could misbehave. It seemed a hyperbolic reaction at that point, given that the venue has traditionally seen decent batting surfaces, even if on the slower side, and the deterioration has often been at a much tedious rate when compared to other Indian venues.

However, the fact that the pitch started to be up-and-down from the first day itself is something nobody was expecting and it's also taken the Indian camp by surprise. Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey admitted as much at the press conference after the second day's play.

"From the couple of games that previously we've seen out here, generally the nature of the wicket is, it gets lower and slower as the days progress," said Mhambrey.

"In the past also, if you see a couple of games that [were] played, it has got slower, on the lower side as well. So we expected that, but to be honest we didn't expect it to be playing that low on the second day itself. I think a couple of balls did keep low in the first innings as well, but that's what we didn't expect. We expected it to get slower as the days progress, but not the variable bounce that we've seen in the last couple of days. That's something that we were not expecting."

Having lost the toss, India's bowlers in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah weren't able to maintain consistency for longer periods, more so after having had the visitors at 112/5 in the first session of day one. Joe Root's masterly ton and his associations with the English lower order meant that England eventually ended with 353. The surface on the second day appeared to have crumbled a bit, even if not alarmingly and the uneven bounce was exploited brilliantly by England's inexperienced spin attack, notably Shoaib Bashir.

"I think they bowled well. Bashir did bowl well, kept a good line, kept it simple, line and length, and he really bowled well. At this level you expect the opponents to do that, and he's done it. He's just kept it simple, and has picked up wickets for that."

A striking aspect of Saturday's play was the bite that England's spinners were able to extract from the surface. Apart from Bashir, Tom Hartley and even Joe Root got the ball to grip off the surface, thereby troubling the batters with the variable bounce. In contrast, India's much more experienced spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav weren't able to threaten on a regular basis, barring the occasional moment.

On a slow surface, it does help for spinners to bowl at a quicker pace but Mhambrey doesn't feel it's a thumb rule as such. "See, every bowler has a style - certain strengths and areas that he needs to work on. In a game, every spinner has his own way of bowling. Will be different to our bowlers, will be different to [bowlers from] any other country.

"He [Bashir] stuck to his strengths. That's his strength, he's not a big spinner of the ball, he's a tall guy, hits the length, keeps it very simple, and it's the same for Hartley as well. Similar kind of left-arm spinner. That's his strength, I think he stuck to his strength.

"Ash, as you all know, is a different kind of bowler to Jaddu, so every individual will stick to his strengths. I don't think we, from our perspective, are really looking at doing something that they've done. We need to stick with what works for us, our strengths, and just hopefully as the game progresses pick up wickets," said Mhambrey.

The opening Test match of the series in Hyderabad had a similar looking surface where spin started playing a role very early in the game. Coincidentally, England had won the toss in that game too, and India's batters couldn't respond to the challenges of a wearing pitch, particularly in the fourth innings when Hartley ripped into them.

The subsequent Test matches in Vizag and Rajkot had much flatter surfaces where spin only came into play gradually in the latter days. With a 2-1 lead, it was perhaps adventurous of India to punt with another tricky deck but Mhambrey insisted that the think tank hadn't made any such requests.

"Firstly, venues are not something we can control. This was a venue allotted for the series as well. The way wicket plays out here has always been similar. It has always not been a rank turner. I wouldn't call this a rank turner because there was variable bounce. I don't think too many balls spun sharply from the wicket and there was variable bounce on the lower side. That made batting difficult. But that's the nature of the soil and there was no specific instruction of a rank turner from our side.

"It was a similar wicket to Saurashtra which turned a little bit. We expected it to be similar but the soil out here is different and you can't gurantee the exact wicket you want. There, honestly, weren't any instructions that we need a turner. I don't think it is a turner as of now. It's just the low bounce which is making batting a little difficult. I don't think there has been any ball which has really spun to call it a turning wicket here."

On a day where England's spinners made life difficult for India's batters, Dhruv Jurel and his unbroken 42-run stand with Kuldeep Yadav gave the home side some respite heading to stumps. Both batters showed a lot more application and clarity at the crease than some of the celebrated specialist batters before them. Barring Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was a tad unfortunate to chop one on, India's batters weren't proactive enough at the crease. Despite the Jurel-Kuldeep association, India still trail by 134 runs - a mammoth margin on any track, let alone this one at Ranchi.

With three full days left and England's naturally ultra-aggressive style of batting, the visitors hold the edge going into the third day. It means that India's series lead of 2-1 at the moment is in choppy waters. Unless Jurel and the tail can produce a miraculous performance on day three, England are likely to have a first innings lead that could psychologically dent India's morale even before the second innings starts.

When quipped about the current status of the game, Mhambrey seemed tight-lipped and chose to look at the positive side of things. "It's just far-fetched [looking too far ahead] right now. What's important right now is, we have two set batsmen at the crease, we already have some 40-odd partnership going. I think they've really applied themselves, and the important bit is to get as close [as possible] to the target [England total].

"That's the first bit, and then we'll see, maybe tomorrow, how far are we or how close are we to the target [England total], and then we'll see. What we really need to look at is, we're gonna chase, right? The target, the number, will differ, but mentally we need to chase. We need to bat well in the second innings, whatever the target is. Let's keep it that simple. First is just the partnership, take it as close [as possible] to the target [England total], and we need to bat better."