Ben Stokes bagging a wicket with his first ball in 251 days was described as “magical” by England assistant Jeetan Patel on an otherwise difficult day in Dharamsala.

England appeared bereft after a wicketless first session on day two of the fifth Test as hundreds from Rohit Sharma (103) and Shubman Gill (110) carried India into a position of outright dominance.

Stokes had one trump card left and used it in the second over after lunch, bowling competitively for the first time since July 1 last year and producing a beauty which thudded into Rohit’s off stump.

India closed on 473 for eight and a lead of 255 after England fought back in the final session, while Stokes’ instant impact and his five-over spell which yielded one for 17 augurs well for the future.

“He’s a freak,” said Patel. “It was almost written in the stars that he was going to bowl a jaffa first up. It’s magical, isn’t it? It’s so nice to see him back.

“He came on to bowl when the English crowds are waking up; they’re flicking on the TV and the first thing they see is Ben Stokes bowling a really good delivery to Rohit Sharma.”

Stokes has been a specialist batter for the last eight months and had surgery in November to remove a bone spur and reinforce his meniscus with stitches to try to resolve a longstanding left knee issue.

Stokes had made a “pinky promise” with England’s physiotherapist Ben Davies not to bowl on this tour but he has progressed well enough in his recovery and been operating at full tilt in practice recently.

Having teased the possibility of resuming his all-rounder status in recent weeks, the England captain broke his vow to Davies and showed he was worth the wait but barely acknowledged his breakthrough.

“We all know how we can round our attack out, especially in conditions like these where you’ve usually got two spinners, two seamers and then you want your third in Stokesy,” said Patel.

“It was nice to see him back at the crease but we’ve just got to be careful we don’t push him too far, it’s still early days. It’s exciting to see him support the bowlers on a day where it’s a hard slog.”

England’s hopes of a consolation win to end the series with a 3-2 loss steadily slipped away on Friday, with the efforts of Rohit and Gill added to by debutant Devdutt Padikkal (65) and Sarfaraz Khan (56).

All of India’s top five made fifty-plus scores but they lurched from 376 for three to 428 for eight as Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley made inroads, plugging away despite toiling for much of the day.

Off-spinner Bashir was tireless and claimed 44-5-170-4, while slow left-armer Hartley was similarly resolute and snared Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin in the same over in his 39-3-126-2.

The pair’s prospects of game time for their counties this summer are uncertain, with Bashir behind Jack Leach in the Somerset pecking order, while Hartley’s Lancashire have signed Nathan Lyon.

“My work continues when they are not with England,” said former New Zealand off-spinner Patel. “I am not the sort of bloke who is going to leave them in the lurch.

“It’s probably too far away to talk about it. But it would be nice to see these guys get more opportunities to bowl, get more overs in them, because they obviously have something to offer.”

England are confident spinner Dom Bess will rediscover his rhythm after being left frazzled by India's batsman and his own wayward line on day two of the fourth Test.

India reached 294-7 thanks to a stunning 115-ball century from Rishabh Pant, who helped the hosts establish an 89-run lead, after surviving a big lbw shout from Bess shortly before tea.

Bess finished without reward, with figures of 0-56 in 15 overs pointing to a lack of threat from the 23-year-old off-spinner. He bowled with a lack of control at times, throwing in far too many full tosses, and will want to get among the wickets on Saturday morning and put a bad Friday behind him.

He was recalled for this contest in Ahmedabad having been left out for the second and third Tests, both of which England lost after making a winning start to the series in Chennai.

England spin coach Jeetan Patel said Bess had "needed a break" and was "jaded" by his experience of that opening match.

But Patel trusts Bess is capable of troubling batsmen again, and said of his disappointing performance so far in this match: "It's no real one thing, it's just a fact it didn't work out for him today.

"There's still room for him to improve, like everyone in this group, but Bessy's still very young. He's still learning how to bowl red ball at Test level which is very difficult. He'll be better for these experiences going forward.

"There's some things with Bessy that we'd like to get into. He's got time after this Test match to get back and look at that, but right now he's got a job to do and that's getting those three wickets tomorrow.

"He would have liked to have bowled a lot better today and liked to have given a lot more to the group, and it didn't work out for him. They played him very well. They sat on him and looked for balls to score off when they could.

"Right now he will be quite down and quite tired, but the beauty of this game is the fact there is another opportunity tomorrow."

Ben Stokes, by contrast, was hailed as England's 'Superman' by Patel. 

Stokes took 2-73 in 22 overs to follow up his 55 with the bat on Thursday, and at stumps he appeared exhausted, having been running in amid searing heat.

"Stokesy's your man. He's the guy you want to go to for anything really," Patel said. "He's almost like a Superman with this sort of stuff. He really does enjoy the tough battles.

"He bowled a lot of overs today. He almost bowled the whole first session and he got some crucial wickets for us on the way.

"He's pretty cooked as you can imagine, but he's a warhorse and he loves it. He loves when it gets tough and he loves when it gets hot and tiring, and that's when he stands up most. Hopefully we see the best of him again tomorrow."

Patel said Pant's innings was "pretty special" but claimed the match was "still quite in the balance".

"He came out after that tea break and took it to us," Patel said of Pant's effort. "Hats have to go off to how they played that."

Jeetan Patel says England must learn from how Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli mastered such tough conditions as the tourists prepare to "shake a stick" at pulling off an unlikely win in Chennai.

India are well on course to levelling the four-match series at 1-1 after dominating the third day at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium on Monday.

Ashwin was the star of the show on his home ground, making a brilliant 106 after taking 5-43 on day two, and captain Kohli struck 62 as India recovered from 106-6 to post 286 all out in their second innings.

England were in deep trouble on 53-3 at stumps, needing a mammoth 429 more runs to go 2-0 up, with Kohli's side looking destined to seal a crushing victory.

Axar Patel dismissed Dom Sibley and nightwatchman Jack Leach either side of the magnificent Ashwin getting rid of Rory Burns as India tightened their grip on a pitch that has turned sharply from day one.

Dan Lawrence and Joe Root made it through to stumps and England spin bowling consultant Patel expects the tourists to show fight when they resume on day four.

The former New Zealand spinner said: "I think Ashwin and Kohli were fantastic.

"Kohli, right from the first innings where maybe his footwork was I suppose a touch lazy compared to the second innings – where he was fantastic with the way he got down to the ball and across his stumps.

"The way he forced us to bowl in areas he wanted to, we need to take heed from that. Especially with the way Ashwin came out and swept early, got the field he wanted and then could manipulate the lengths from there.

"They are in a really strong position, there is no doubt about that, but we are going to have work really hard to grab some of that back."

He added: "There's still lots to do, but there's match-winners in this group, we've seen that before.

"I'm not about to say that we are 100 per cent going to win this game, but what I am going to say is we will shake a stick at it."

Patel says it is vital England take a positive approach as they try to dig themselves out of a huge hole.

"I think it's just to keep staying positive, we've got stroke-makers in the group and we want them to keep expressing themselves," he said. 

"The thing that has been the strengths so far in the three matches we have played in the subcontinent is to still try to score. 

"If we sit there and try to defend for two days, we're going to have much success and we're not going to go anywhere in the game. We can certainly look to learn a lot about ourselves while looking to score.

"I think Dan Lawrence was fantastic, the way he played this evening was exactly how he wants to play cricket and how he can contribute to this team."