Whether or not this match will be Alastair Cook’s last stand as captain, the final morning of England’s Test winter had a fin de siècle feel about it.
If the first session today in Madras, which the tourists ended on 97 without loss, is anything to go by then this fifth Test should end in a draw.
That might allow Cook and his players to regain some of the pride that was so savagely beaten from them on the fourth evening when Karun Nair’s triple hundred propelled India to a record-total of 759 for seven declared that represented the most runs conceded by England in a single Test innings.
However, whatever the result of this match, it will prove immaterial to both the series result and Cook’s future as captain. India are already 3-0 up following convincing back-to-back wins at Visakhapatnam, Mohali and Mumbai.
Cook’s fate has probably already been decided and that was likely to have been the case even before the demoralising 190 overs his team spent in the field during this match.
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It perhaps may have proved the last straw for Cook but this is a year where England have regressed in Test cricket, having lost seven of 17 matches in 2016 and won only six.
Only the opener, who has been in the job for more than four years, knows whether he has the hunger to go on until the end of next winter’s Ashes series in Australia.
That will have to be the terms upon which Cook commits to staying on. After all Joe Root, his deputy, needs a home summer to settle into the role before the Ashes.
There has been much made of Cook’s talks with Andrew Strauss, the England director of cricket, in the New Year. Yet it is unlikely any actual decisions will be made when the two former opening partners sit down and chat.
If Cook wants to continue, it seems almost certain Strauss will support him. The same goes if he decides to step down. After all, Strauss knows all about stepping down from the captaincy having done so in the autumn of 2012, an act that saw Cook succeed him.
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Talk in the Madras media centre was whether any resignation — if indeed that is what will happen — will come at the end of this Test. That seems unlikely, with the vibes coming out of the England camp suggesting it definitely won’t happen.
England have actually reported that Cook has been in relaxed mood since the innings defeat in Mumbai, after which he proclaimed Root was “ready” to take on the top job. That relaxed demeanour could be the sign of a man not affected at all by the frenzied conjecture over his future outside of the dressing room.
It could also mean Cook has already decided to stand down. We’ll find out soon enough. If not tonight then early in the New Year.