A round of golf has usually been one of the most common pastimes for visiting England teams. But for Ben Stokes and his teammates, playing golf was possible only the day after the second Test ended in Visakhapatnam.

But there too, only a few players could have a round or two as some of them were down with a viral infection.

The Englishmen, however, seem to have found some solace in playing cards, which has been their main pastime on the ongoing tour. Stokes and opening batsman Zak Crawley are the "men to beat" in cards, which the skipper said while talking to BBC Sport.

But as the fourth Test gets underway, Stokes and Co. do need to play their cards right, in order to keep the series alive till the final match in Dharamsala next month.

"Since they haven't had much of golf so far on this tour, (playing) cards have been their primary pastime although they used to play dice during the Ashes. (Ollie) Pope and (Gus) Atkinson are keener on darts though," a team source said.

Neither Pope nor pacer Atkinson are good enough to trump James Anderson in a game of darts though.

For Anderson, redemption would certainly be the focus here, especially after a forgettable outing in Rajkot, where opener Yashasvi Jaiswal took him to the cleaners. Whether he reaches the 700-wicket milestone in this Test or not, Stokes believes Anderson will always be the role model for a young fast bowler given his "longevity" and that he's feeling "as fresh as a fiddle even after a high-workload Test".