The end of an era is rarely pretty.

England’s rebirth in one-day cricket was fuelled by a wish to banish the horrors of their early World Cup exit in 2015.

The golden period that has followed has taken in the heights of world titles at Lord’s and Melbourne but is now at risk of ending in similarly embarrassing fashion.

Saturday’s 229-run defeat by South Africa, England’s heaviest in one-day internationals, had all of the pain of that night in Adelaide eight years ago.

In fact, it was strangely similar to the darkest days of Ashes tours gone by.

The 2017-18 loss down under ended with Joe Root having to rise from his hospital bed to put up the final defence.

Here in Mumbai, with England having been suckered in at the toss – there’s another for your Ashes bingo card – the medical centres will have watched with interest.

England subjected themselves to the subcontinent sweatbox and…