Jos Buttler was left bristling and bemused as a controversial concussion sub helped India take an unassailable 3-1 lead in an entertaining T20 series. The England captain joked that India had effectively played the fourth T20 with 12 men – as is now the norm in the Indian Premier League, since the introduction of the “impact substitute” last year. This, though, was a concussion sub. At the innings break, the match officials allowed India to replace Shivam Dube, the batting all-rounder who had made a fine 53 from 34 balls to help them to 181 for nine, with Harshit Rana, an out-and-out fast bowler, who duly took a match-winning three for 33 on debut to help them to a 15-run win. Dube had taken a blow to the head from Jamie Overton in the final over of India’s innings. A concussion test was held, which he failed. There is no question over the legitimacy of Dube’s concussion; only the choice of replacement.

Dube bowls canny medium pace, but is very much a part-time bowler. In 34 T20 internationals, he has bowled his full allocation of overs only twice, and in eight matches at last year’s World Cup, which India won, he bowled a single over. Harshit, meanwhile, has played 25 T20 matches in his career, and scored a total of two runs. International Cricket Council regulations state that the match referee – in this case the former India bowler Javagal Srinath – “should ordinarily approve a concussion replacement request if the replacement is a like-for-like player whose inclusion will not excessively advantage his/her team for the remainder of the match”, and that he “should consider the likely role the concussed player would have played during the remainder of the match, and the normal role that would be performed by the nominated concussion replacement”.

Buttler said England were not consulted on the matter, and he found out the change had been made only when he walked out to bat with England 62 for one at the end of the powerplay. The England captain said the 27-year-old all-rounder Ramandeep Singh, who is in India’s squad, should have been the concussion sub for Dube. “We don’t agree with the decision,” Buttler said. “There is a bit of confusion about how anybody has come to that decision. It’s a concussion sub, and hopefully Shivam Dube is OK. But they had a like-for-like replacement in Ramandeep Singh, so we are quite confused as to how Harshit Rana was able to come into the game.

“We had no consultation. As I came out to bat, I asked the umpire why Harshit was on the field and he said he’s the concussion sub which I was quite confused by. “It’s not a like-for-like replacement, we don’t agree with that. Either Dube has put on about 25mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting. It’s part of the game, I still think we should have gone on to win the match but we disagree with the decision.”.

Buttler said he would be following up with Srinath. Asked if Harshit had won the game on his own, he said: “he didn’t, but he helped”, adding “maybe at the toss next game I’ll say we’re going to play 12 as well. “It’s not the whole reason why we didn’t win the match and we had our chances to win the game, which we could have still taken,” he said. “But yeah, I’d like to just get a bit of clarity around that.”.

Buttler is right: Harshit’s introduction was wrong, but his team still missed a golden opportunity to take this series to a decider in Mumbai on Sunday. He had won the toss for the first time on the tour and Saqib Mahmood, recalled for the rested Mark Wood, served up a triple-wicket maiden in his first over of the series. Saqib Mahmood's TRIPLE-WICKET MAIDEN in his first over back in an England shirt 🤯 pic.twitter.com/3a4g5vKf7X.

From there, Dube led India’s recovery. India have batted meekly against the England spinner Adil Rashid in the last two games, but the powerful left-hander took him on. Rashid picked up the wicket of Abhishek Sharma in his first over, and Buttler, diving to his left at slip, dropped a sharp chance off Dube’s first ball. Dube would take Rashid for 25 from 11 balls. His other 13 balls brought just 10 runs.

Hardik Pandya was watchful against Rashid, but got tucked into England’s seamers, launching four sixes in his 53, before falling in Overton’s penultimate over, which went for 20. His last was better, going for just three and seeing three wickets fall (two, including Dube, to run-outs). England’s chase started brilliantly, with Ben Duckett stroking 39 from 19 balls before falling to the last ball of the powerplay. That precipitated a collapse – which included the wicket of Buttler – of three for five in 10 balls to India’s spinners. For once in this series, Ravi Bishnoi outshone Varun Chakravarthy.