Harry Brook, England's vice-captain, says that his team's hopes of combatting India's spin bowlers in the first T20I were hampered by an unusual but familiar foe to English touring sides - a thick layer of smog hanging over the ground in Kolkata.
Brook made 17 from 14 balls before being bowled by a wrong'un from India's legspinner, Varun Chakravarthy, who then dismissed Liam Livingstone in near-identical fashion two balls later. England collapsed from 65 for 2 to 109 for 8, and ultimately 132 all out, with India's spinners claiming five wickets in all. Abhishek Sharma's 79 from 34 balls then condemned them to a seven-wicket defeat with a thumping 43 balls to spare.
Chakravarthy was the pick of the attack with 3 for 23 in his four overs, although his fellow legspinner Ravi Bishnoi proved every bit as tough to get away as he returned figures of 0 for 22. And speaking on the eve of the second T20I in Chennai, Brook suggested there had been an atmospheric reason for England's struggles to pick their variations.
"I didn't face Bishnoi but Chakravarthy is an exceptionally good bowler," he said. "He's tough to pick. I think actually with the smog the other night, it was a lot harder to pick as well. Hopefully, the air is a bit clearer here and we can see the ball a bit easier.
"He's an exceptional bowler and has got a lot of skills with extreme accuracy as well. Their spinners are their key threat, so we will look to put pressure on them, take them down, put as much pressure as we can on them, and hopefully they crumble from there."
It's a familiar refrain from England touring sides. On their 1992-93 visit to India, England's then-chairman of selectors, Ted Dexter, famously attributed his team's emphatic defeat in the first Test, also at Eden Gardens, to smog. Though he was widely lampooned for his remarks, the issue has taken on a more serious aspect in recent years, with India's Test against Sri Lanka at Delhi in 2017 having to be stopped after several players vomited due to the pollution.
England are set to make at least one change to the XI in Chennai, with Brydon Carse included as a pace option in place of Gus Atkinson, who endured a night to forget with bat and ball at Kolkata. Jamie Smith has also been included in a 12-man squad, and could step in for Jacob Bethell, who missed training on Friday with illness.
The emphatic loss on Wednesday marked a low-key start to Brendon McCullum's tenure as England's white-ball head coach, albeit he had warned "there'll be some times we don't quite get it right" during his pre-series comments to the media last week.
Nevertheless, his appointment of Brook as Jos Buttler's vice-captain is further proof of his desire to unite the red- and white-ball squads under a single philosophy, and with as many cross-over performers as possible. And the informal attitude that has powered the Test team's displays in recent seasons was in evidence in the manner with which Brook was offered the deputy's role.
"We were sat in the bar the other night and Baz texted me from across the other side of the room," he said. "He just said 'Congrats, you're the vice-captain' and I just put: 'Beautiful, thanks.' There wasn't really much conversation.
"Obviously, I captained the ODIs in the summer so I kind of knew that it was going to happen. You don't have to do too much as a vice-captain; Jos is extremely experienced, I'll give him a few suggestions here and there and if he comes to me, I'll give him my opinion but it's up to him whether he takes it or not."