Perhaps the only uncomfortable aspect of India’s emphatic 4-1 T20 series win over England was the handling of Shivam Dube’s concussion, a saga that exposed the International Cricket Council’s weaknesses in governing the game.

The saga came in two parts.

The first, in Pune, was curious. All-rounder Dube took a heavy blow to the head from a Jamie Overton bouncer and at the innings break failed a concussion test. It was right that he was replaced, although it was bizarre that Javagal Srinath, the match referee, allowed Harshit Rana, an out-and-out fast bowler, to come in for Dube.

Ramandeep Singh was in India’s squad. Going by the rules, as a medium-pace bowling all-rounder, he was a far more direct “like-for-like” replacement. Not even the great Sunil Gavaskar thought this was a fair swap, saying the move had “taken the gloss off the win”. After Dube had made 53, Harshit bowled with pace and bounce, picking up three wickets as India took an unassailable lead.

The second, in Mumbai, was more worrying. Despite failing a test two days earlier, Dube played in the final match of the series, and played well, smashing 30 from 13 balls and, to add a neat comic twist, took two wickets for just the third time in his 35-match T20I career.

The two parts of the story are incompatible. Putting aside all questions about who replaced him, Dube was concussed on Friday and therefore should not have been facing up to 90mph bowling on Sunday for the sake of his brain health.

By failing to have regulations that prevented Dube taking the field, cricket confirmed it is not taking concussion seriously enough. That is on the ICC. It is time for robust ICC regulations around stand-down periods if players suffer brain injuries. English cricket has them, so does Australia. It is time the ICC moved from vague guidelines and recommendations to tough rules, giving full control to independent medics.

There are other questions for the ICC to answer, especially around having local match referees for bilateral internationals.

Chris Broad, the former England batsman who served as a match referee until recently, asked on X: “Why are the ICC returning to the ‘bad old days’ of bias and corruption?” That is loaded language, but Srinath was placed in an unfair, unenviable position making decisions like this around a team he used to play for. It creates a perception of conspiracy, when at worst there is only cock-up to see here. With Covid in the rearview mirror, it is time for at least one neutral standing umpire in every international, and for a neutral match referee.

If this reads like English sour grapes, it is not. The tourists had their moments in this series, but were utterly outplayed by a fearless, skilful India across five matches. Harshit was introduced at a crucial moment, but England were unable to handle that pressure.

“It wasn’t why we lost the game,” said Brendon McCullum, the England coach. “It wasn’t beneficial but we had opportunities in that game to win.”

McCullum said he had sought out Srinath to discuss the matter in Pune. “It was light-hearted, and there was no emotion involved,” he said. “It was just trying to understand how we got to that decision. We respectfully disagreed and we moved on. Javagal has been around the game for a long time and I have the utmost respect for him and his role. He knows the reasons he made that call.”

McCullum added that there would be no official complaint from England because that is “not really my style”.

There was an air of resignation about Jos Buttler, the England captain, by Mumbai. He had expressed anger – both visibly and verbally – in Pune, but could only laugh about it at the Wankhede Stadium. At the toss, he joked that England had four “impact subs”, a nod to the Indian Premier League regulation that allows a mid-game replacement.

McCullum is still occasionally seen playing decent-level rugby in his native New Zealand, so knows all about the dangers of concussion and admitted his surprise to see Dube’s name on the team sheet in Mumbai. “I was a little bit surprised because I just worry about player welfare,” he said. “In sport, there’s a lot more known now about how dangerous concussion can be. Especially when you have guys bowling 90-plus mph. That can be dangerous”.

A few jibes from Buttler aside, England rolled over on this matter, because they felt powerless, just as they were when India left the 2021 Test series early; just as the wider game has been as India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, or when India knew which T20 World Cup semi-final venue they would play in (Guyana), but no one else did.

Yes, it is easy to imagine previous, less horizontal England regimes rattling a few more cages. Andy Flower kicked off when Tom Curran was clearly run out in the ILT20 last week, a reminder of his abrasive approach as England coach.

But much has changed in cricket’s geopolitics since Flower was England coach and, rightly or wrongly, few feel able to stand up to India, the beating heart of the game now. With Jay Shah, son of Amit Shah, Narendra Modi’s minister for home affairs, moving from the Board of Control for Cricket in India to the ICC, that is unlikely to change. Parts one and two of the Dube story are just very small examples of that.

England’s white-ball empire crumbling but Brendon McCullum insists: Rome wasn’t built in a day

England’s white-ball empire has crumbled since the retirement of Eoin Morgan but the coach charged with reconstructing it, Brendon McCullum, has pleaded for patience after the 4-1 T20 drubbing by India, declaring “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

McCullum has been Test coach for almost three years, espousing an ultra-positive “Bazball” brand of cricket. He is now bringing the same blue-sky messaging to a white-ball setup that has struggled for an identity since the totemic World Cup-winning captain Morgan retired in 2022. Under coach Matthew Mott, England put in two dismal World Cup defences within six months that resulted in his sacking last summer.

McCullum’s first series in charge saw England compete in three ODI games, but thrashed at the beginning and end against West Indies. Then the India shorter-format series saw the heaviest defeat in the side’s 20-year T20 history, as Abhishek Sharma blitzed a stunning 135 that they simply could not live with on Sunday.

England’s coach, no stranger to batting fireworks, thought it “as good an innings as we’ve ever witnessed in T20 cricket” and defended his team’s performances, which will have to improve sharply if they are to compete in three ODIs against India which start on Thursday and the Champions Trophy that follows.

“I know the scoreline reads 4-1 and it’s disappointing to lose the series but Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he said. “The guys are all in on what we’re trying to achieve and I think we’ve seen a pretty clear game plan of how we want to play. The further along along the road we get then the more comfortable we get playing like that and ultimately I think we’ll win more games than we lose.

“Overall, there’s some really good stuff happening and so much good will come out of this series for us as well. We’ve been exposed to some of the great stadiums in the world, it’s hostile when you play here against a team that’s playing fearless cricket and comfortable in these conditions. We’ve lost the series 4-1 but some of our guys are a little bit further down the road now and we’ll look forward to the one-day series.

‘It’s about never flinching. That’s our message’

“The good thing about a series like this is it builds that bank of knowledge of playing in these conditions and playing against very good teams and the level of risks you need to operate at, and we will be better off for it.

“We have shown what our plan is. We are trying to bowl hostile overs. I’m fascinated by that in 50-over cricket because that level of hostility can last a lot longer, rather than play high risk with the bat. We want wickets constantly, we understand how vital that can be. That mantra will never change.

“With the bat, trying to be watchable. There will be nights it doesn’t work out, but that’s the style we want to stick to and we feel we have the players for it. It’s about never flinching. That’s our message. We will get more comfortable with it, even the messaging with the guys around the dressing room. I anticipate we will get there quick enough.”

England have just one addition to their squad for the ODI series, with Joe Root arriving in Mumbai this weekend and set to return to No 3. Wicketkeeper Jamie Smith is expected to miss the first two matches with a calf injury, but there are no doubts over his availability for the Champions Trophy.

Spinner Rehan Ahmed, unused in the T20s, has been added to the ODI squad. McCullum confirmed Saqib Mahmood will play the first of those matches, while Jofra Archer – who played all five T20s but is nursing a frustrating cut on his hand – will play two of the three as his body is carefully managed.