There's something about this ground - its very name - that invites geometric metaphors. The Oval. It has long been the home of conclusions, the traditional full stop to England's Test summers. And so, after the square, and then the curve, we arrive at the circle. As the shadows lengthened briefly on a beautiful sunlit third evening, the geometry of India's tour began to feel almost whole. Not quite a circle yet, but something slowly and definitively curling back to itself.

In a series spilling over with centuries - the most ever in an English Test series - it was only fitting that the 19th and the last by an Indian batter belonged to the man who'd got the ticker running. Yashasvi Jaiswal flung open the gates at Headingley with a statement hundred and came full circle in the south, crafting another. His 101 at Headingley had announced India's first steps into a new era after the weight of winter. His 118 today may not have carried the same control - no innings truly could be, on the spiciest pitch of the series - but it had the familiar poise, punch, and a growing sense that six weeks on, India's batting transition had progressed well.

For a player who set the tone for the series with a sparkling hundred on debut innings in England - seamlessly following Test centuries on debut Tests in the West Indies and Australia - this England series was a brief step away from the spotlight for the 23-year-old. Even the glow in Leeds turned into a glare by the end and the memory of his opening-day century was very quickly overshadowed by four dropped catches. Those lapses ultimately became the narrative bridge between what should have been a winning start to what became an early deficit in the series.

By the time India reached Birmingham, Jaiswal had been quietly repositioned. At Edgbaston, as the new slip cordon lined up in training, he had to walk past them to the far end of the ground, joining the group practising high catches. His batting didn't immediately suffer - he made a solid 87 on the first morning - but in a series of this length, with long working hours, things like that pile up.

"Mental, emotional, and physical" - it was a trio of words Jaiswal kept circling back to today, without adding specifics. He's that kind of cricketer. Intense. Obsessed. The sort who sneaks in a throwdown even as the teams line up for the anthems. It felt like he was trying to return to the freedom of that first leap into the Leeds air - but was getting boxed in. Just as he had been when England saw his side-on setup and pinned him with short balls. In the second innings at Lord's, he tried to stamp authority early in a modest chase, pulling a Jofra Archer short ball from wide outside off and giving a simple catch to the 'keeper. It was the kind of shot that reveals something - the kind teams don't forget.

The first ball to him in this Oval second innings was also short and wide. Jaiswal unfurled a fierce square cut with bite, only for Duckett to cut it off. It was the shot Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan legend and Jaiswal's mentor at Rajasthan Royals, had wanted him to play at Lord's. But this was an early signal. He wasn't going to be dictated to on this pitch, even with England ahead by the small matter of 23 runs after two innings. He would play his game.

And the wagon wheel told the story. Seventy-five percent of his 118 came on the off side, with 76 of those runs behind or just in front of square. Anything fractionally short and wide, he lashed. If it was closer to him, he upper-cut it over the cordon. He was tactically and technically switched on - even chiding non-striker Karun Nair for not informing him that the third man had moved finer.

In one last turn of the narrative wheel, the drops returned too. This time, it was Jaiswal who was being dropped. Twice reprieved, he made England pay, with a defining third-innings knock on a tricky pitch. Fittingly, he reached his hundred with a push to cover and leapt again - high, loose, alive.

And yet, for all his brilliance, he wasn't the heartbeat of the day. That was Akash Deep, India's first night watch to hit a half-century since Amit Mishra's 84 at this very venue in 2011. Akash's 66 was a great circle on its own. India's preference for batting depth across the series has been a direct response to the events of Leeds, where apart from the drops, those twin collapses of 7 for 41 and 6 for 31 stung. They kept bolstering the lower order with allrounders and asked their bowlers to chip in.

Here, it was a bowler who had walked out in the haze of Day 2 to do a specific job. Akash was tasked as the night watch to shield the series' best batter, Shubman Gill, from the evening nerves. Unlike Lord's, he also survived the period of play himself.

Today morning, though, he wasn't just offering Jaiswal company, he was giving him rhythm. Jaiswal began trusting him enough to play second fiddle. Akash moved past his highest Test score (31), then to his maiden first-class fifty and finally to highest first-class score. On this stage, in these stakes, it was an innings built on muscle and cheer.

And how much cheer. A night earlier, he'd drawn scorn for draping an arm around Duckett after dismissing. But today, when he reached fifty, he brought the fist to the air celebration, the one he uses regularly, and the one he ought to have used for Duckett too. The Indian dressing room rose, urging him to take off his helmet. He didn't. But everyone knew. In the only century stand of the match so far, Jaiswal played the harmony. The No. 8 turned No. 4 wrote the melody.

There were other turns. In that first hour of the day, England drew 32.3% false shots, or roughly one every three balls. But Akash and Jaiswal weren't dislodged. That a crucial 'Umpire's Call' on an LBW referral against Akash went their way in this period was another marker of the turnaround in their fortunes. And they have landed on the wrong side of luck in this series until now. Four tosses lost in a row, perhaps none as cruelly timed as this one on a green top.

At Lord's and Manchester, they lost Rishabh Pant to finger and foot injuries and had him in curtailed capacities. Here, England suffered that fate as Chris Woakes pulled up with a shoulder injury on the opening day. England had a better balanced attack for this pitch with four seamers but losing Woakes bent the depth of the attack, stretched spells, and exposed inexperience.

True to the story's looping rhythms, India also found a 39-run partnership for the 10th wicket - all scored by Washington Sundar - that pushed the fourth innings back to the Leeds realm. It was 371 there, it is 374 here. The match remains alive. The circle has not yet closed. But all points, finally, seem to lead there.