As a new chapter beckons, this fifth and final Test offers England the chance to break old habits

In the same way that all marriages end in death or divorce, international sporting careers invariably end in chagrin. Don Bradman finished with a two-ball duck. Usain Bolt tore a hamstring in his last ever race. Muhammad Ali ended his boxing career punch-drunk on a stool in Nassau, in a fight no American state would sanction and no American broadcaster would screen. Rare indeed is the athlete granted the luxury of scripting their own fairytale ending.

And so we must probably conclude that as much as the Oval crowd would love to see it, the chances of Alastair Cook ending his England career with a 33rd Test century are vanishingly small. Sport doesn’t work like that. Cook will be welcomed warmly at the wicket for his 161st Test, he will receive a rapturous ovation from all sides of the ground, he will take his guard, and then, more than likely, India’s seamers will merrily resume exposing the off-stump indiscipline that caused Cook’s career-ending slump in the first place.

For England, meanwhile, the script is threatening to go a similar way. The series is won, yet a game remains, and recent followers of the national team will be perfectly aware what happens next. From Sydney to Centurion, from Chennai to Dubai, give this maddeningly inconsistent side an opportunity to take their foot off the gas, and they will gladly accept it. England have not won any of their last 11 dead rubbers, drawing four and losing seven since their last victory, against a demoralised India in 2011.

In a way, it is a statistic that speaks to the guiding ethos of this team, which having lurched from crisis to crisis over recent years is so utterly embedded in survival mode that it has adopted its mindset wholesale: essentially, achieve only what you need to, and no more. This is not a question of effort or application, but one of focus and concentration. Such is the strain of keeping the show on the road that England often have nothing left in the tank for afterwards. As the stakes drop, so does the intensity, often alarmingly.

Still, if we can rely on this England team in any capacity, then it’s in defying any attempt to rely on it. Beating India at The Oval to claim a wholly distorted 4-1 series win is one of those incongruous outcomes that is just outlandish enough for them to pull off. The hope for Joe Root is that some confluence of the poignant resonance of Cook’s final stand and the shimmering promise of a new era will somehow reveal new emotional depths to his side. Or, to put it more bluntly, that an immensely talented group will step out of Cook’s enormous shadow and take some blasted responsibility for once.

After the win in Southampton, Root explained that this was beginning to feel more and more like his team. He had the selection he wanted, he was batting where he wanted, he had a clear idea of how he wanted to play, and everyone seemed to buy into his vision. With the bat, it means adapting quickly to conditions, neither blazing away nor hanging around waiting for a ball with your name on it. Pragmatism and modulated aggression will be the order of the day.

With the ball, Root demands options and variety. It is an indictment of the lack of variety available to him during the last Ashes that he felt compelled to tinker with the attack throughout the series, eventually plumping for Mason Crane in Sydney as a sort of cry for help. Now, the return of Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes and the emergence of Sam Curran – England’s first left-arm pace threat since Ryan Sidebottom – offer him a genuine choice.

It is telling that despite the fact he had six front-line bowlers available to him at Southampton, Root was intrigued enough by the gentle medium pace of Keaton Jennings to give him a trundle in the first innings. His own off-spin remains viable, and if he fails to give Cook a chance to add to his one Test wicket at The Oval, preferably with a series of Bob Willis impressions, then the nation may never forgive him.

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That’s the formula, then. England may well be unchanged from Southampton; Moeen will probably stay at No 3, with Ollie Pope just missing out again. Chris Woakes may replace Adil Rashid depending on conditions, although England are loath to rush him back from his quadricep injury with the series already won. On the whole, though, England believe that – more by blind blundering than anything else – they have struck upon the balance that gives them the best chance.

As for India, this is one final opportunity to prove themselves in English conditions. Win at The Oval and they can leave with credit, idly wondering how the series might have gone had they won the toss at Lord’s. Ravindra Jadeja, the world’s No 3-ranked bowler, and yet curiously yet to feature in this series, may finally get a game in place of Ravi Ashwin, who looked strangely innocuous on a turning surface in Southampton. But by far the most intriguing potential changes are in the batting department, where India’s frightening production line may be about to bear further fruit.

Prithvi Shaw is 18 years old, a classical opener from the Mumbai maidans, where he first hit the headlines five years ago when he scored 546 in an amateur match. The Sachin Tendulkar comparisons were inevitable, but the similarities between the two are more than cosmetic. Like Tendulkar, Shaw stands at just 5ft 5in, plays the ball late, has impeccable balance, the full range of shots and according to Rahul Dravid, a maturity beyond his years. Like Tendulkar, he has cut his teeth in Yorkshire cricket, playing a summer for Cleethorpes in 2014. Sunil Gavaskar insists he is already ready for Test cricket.

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Like Shaw, Hanuma Vihari was called up to the India squad for the last two Tests after impressing in the recent ‘A’ team tri-series in England. At 24, he is a little older, having plundered runs in industrial quantities at first-class level. His average of almost 60 is the highest of any current cricketer, and the ninth-highest of all-time. An old-school accumulator with an open stance and plenty of bottom hand, Vihari played league cricket in Essex in 2014 and 2015, and according to Kumar Sangakkara is the best young player he has seen in many years.

Will either play? Dilip Vengsarkar believes India should pick them both, although net practice at The Oval on Thursday suggested KL Rahul will keep his place ahead of Shaw, with Vihari slotting into the middle-order in place of Hardik Pandya. The series, after all, is over. And with a home rubber against West Indies next month, and the box-office tour of Australia this winter, the opportunity to blood fresh talent is one India are not likely to spurn.

And so for all the justifiable hoopla over the departure of Cook, this Test will primarily be about looking forwards. For England and India, two ailing teams striving for consistency, the fifth Test offers a chance to break old routines, to smash old certainties, and perhaps even to face the future with something approximating optimism.