Storylines galore, two nailbiters and a last-day thriller

There can be few formats in the world of sport whose mortality has been questioned as much as Test cricket — and few that remain as enthralling.A five-match series is supposed to be an anachronism in an age of tweets and Twenty20, yet to watch England against India these past six weeks has been to plunge into a sea of intrigue, subplots and nailbiters. It has been sporting drama in excelsis.If that is not your thing, you are probably best off inventing a 100-ball gimmick and hoping you can pull the wool over the eyes of the fans until they drift off to tiddlywinks or cheese-rolling.But from the start of this series, when Ravichandran Ashwin bowled Alastair Cook on the first morning at Edgbaston, to the end, when Jimmy Anderson passed Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 to become Test cricket’s leading seamer, the entertainment was rich and unrelenting.Without any need for embellishment, it spoke entirely for itself. Had it ended after three games, as India’s recent series did in South Africa, we would have missed out on half the fun. Five Tests allow ebb and flow, thrust and parry, and they allow players to make mistakes and still have the time to improve.The fate of KL Rahul captured this perfectly. Across the first nine innings, he resembled little more than a walking wicket, totalling 150 runs. In his 10th, he blazed 149.He leaves England with his reputation enhanced, when it might easily have been diminished.Almost everywhere you looked, stories were pleading to be told. There was Anderson against Virat Kohli, a mouth-watering sequel to 2014, when Kohli could barely score a run.Had Dawid Malan not dropped him off Anderson on 21 at Edgbaston, history might have repeated itself.Instead, Kohli imposed his will, filling the final gap on his remarkable c.v. He was dismissed 10 times in all, but — incredibly — never by Anderson. Their tussle will live in the memory.Then there was Cook, apparently sleepwalking to the end of a long and distinguished career, and — as Sportsmail revealed — even prepared to step down before the Oval. Thank goodness he did not.Not only did Cook sign off with the mother of all exclamation marks, he proved there is still room for sentimentality in top-level sport. Of all the records he broke, he may treasure the number of standing ovations he received at the Oval above the lot.Cook will also know that England were flattered by the winning margin. Joe Root won all five tosses, and at Lord’s — where the conditions were cruelly loaded against the Indians — it virtually won them the game.Yet India lost by only 31 runs at Edgbaston and by just 60 at the Ageas Bowl — games which were in the balance until the fourth-innings dismissal of Kohli.Even here at the Oval, they showed why they remain the world’s No 1 Test side. Down and out at two for three on Monday evening, they recovered to give England a scare, reaching 325 for five before falling away. And they won at Trent Bridge, supposedly an England fortress. They were well beaten in the end, but not humiliated.To top it all, this was a series played in good spirits. Kohli suggested there had been the occasional piece of sarcasm between him and Anderson, but that was more or less as nasty as it got. Competitive on the field, but a gentleman off it, Kohli himself embodied the best of the last few weeks.And the best has been good — as good as anything we have seen in this country since the 2005 Ashes.If this is Test cricket dying, long live Test cricket.