Tuesday ought to have been about final top-ups, about last-minute fine-tuning, about dusting off any remaining cobwebs. Instead, it devolved into a frustrating day, bleak and gloomy, with the rain coming down with varying degrees of intensity.

Top drainage facility

It’s possible that this scene will be reprised for most parts of the first two days, at least, of India’s first Test against New Zealand, starting on Wednesday. The M Chinnaswamy Stadium boasts of inarguably the best drainage facilities at a cricket ground in the world, courtesy the revolutionary Sub-air system, but even that might not suffice unless it stops raining.