The pair had what looked like a combative exchange on the pitch in Ahmedabad on Thursday when Stokes was batting.

"It's two professionals showing they care about the sport that they love," said Stokes, when asked about the exchange at the end of the day's play.

"A lot gets said these days when two guys seem to come to words out in the middle. There was completely nothing untoward, just two blokes who care about what they do and two guys who definitely don't back down."

Seamer Mohammed Siraj had his own take, telling reporters in Hindi: "He (Stokes) abused me and I told Virat, who handled it. It's important to have the backing of your captain."

Stokes ended up as England's top scorer again but he was left conceding that his side had fallen 100 runs short of expectations after another chastening encounter with spin.

The tourists had the chance to banish the memories of their two-day defeat at the same Ahmedabad venue last week, winning the toss and finding batting conditions to be less extreme than they had expected.

But although the ball was not turning nor skidding unpredictably off the pitch, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel still found a way to run through the order, sharing seven more wickets as England were felled for 205.

India had time to reach 1-24 in reply but Stokes, who top-scored with 55, was honest enough to accept an opportunity had slipped through his side's fingers.

"We should still be batting," was his succinct summary.

"I think we'll look back on that and be disappointed by some of the batting. We're more than capable of scoring more than 300 on a wicket like that out here, it's frustrating.

"We sit down as a group and say we'll try to put it (the previous game) behind us but that's easier said than done. I know, overall, it's a much better wicket than the last one we played on so we're just disappointed not to still be batting.

"I feel very frustrated that I spent two-and-a-half hours trying to avoid getting out to a straight ball then I ended up getting out to a straight ball."

Stokes had plenty on his mind at the time. Not only had he emerged as his side's leading light with the bat, he had been battling the symptoms of a stomach bug and was also pencilled in to open the bowling after a selection gamble left England with James Anderson as a lone frontline paceman.

He was clearly feeling under the weather and was non-committal about his prospects of reaching 100 per cent in the coming days.

"I'll tell you the truth, I'll just have to wait and see, day by day," he said.

Australian Associated Press