ENGLAND succumbed to the inevitable crushing defeat on day four of the second Test against India, out-spun and outdone on their way to a 317-run loss in Chennai.

The damage had already been done over the course of three chastening days, with England resuming on 53-3, chasing two equally unrealistic options if they were to get out of jail and preserve their 1-0 series lead.

To win they would need to turn their overnight score into a world-record chase of 482 or to draw they would need to bat for six full sessions on a spinning, spitting minefield.

In the end, and to no great surprise, they came nowhere close to either outcome and were bowled out for 164, with all 10 second-innings wickets falling to spin.

Debutant Axar Patel finished with five wickets and there was another couple for player-of-the-match Ravichandran Ashwin, who ended the Test with eight to go with his brilliant second-innings century.

Somerset's Jack Leach, who claimed match figures of 6-178 off 60 overs, had been introduced as nightwatchman the previous day, only for him to go for a duck.

Joe Root (33) clung on for a while on Tuesday, while Moeen Ali added some late spark by hammering five sixes in a bruising 18-ball cameo worth 43, before his dismissal ended the match.

The series is now level at 1-1 going into the day-night third Test, which begins next Wednesday (February 24).

The England selectors are yet to name a squad for the third and fourth Tests, which will take place in Ahmedabad, but Leach and his former Somerset team-mate Dom Bess are likely to be included, as fellow spin bowler Moeen has opted to return home.

The Worcestershire all-rounder tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Sri Lanka last month and had to quarantine for a fortnight.

England captain Root said: "Moeen has chosen to go home. He obviously feels he wants to be home with his family and we have to respect that.

"It's been a tough tour for him. It's come to a point where he feels he needs to get out of the bubble.

"I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision. We have to respect it."

Reflecting on the match, Root added: "I think the credit has to go to India - they played very well.

"They've outplayed us in all three departments this week and for us this is a bit of an education. We've got to learn from this.

"We have got to find a way of scoring runs in these conditions, find ways of building pressure for long periods of time with the ball.

"I think on day one we could probably have been a little bit tighter and squeezed the game a little bit more and made it a little bit harder for them to score as freely as they did.

"And then, with the bat, it was obviously a challenging wicket from day two onwards.

"We are going to have to be quite smart about how we score our runs out here, how we are going to build an innings, and we've got to learn from opposition who played very well in these conditions."