Haseeb Hameed, the 19-year-old opening batsman, has seen his tour of India thrown into doubt after he was unable to open the batting in England’s second innings because of a suspected broken little finger.

Hameed, who was struck on his left hand on the first day of the Mohali Test, did not take the field for the entirety of India’s first innings and, while he netted on Monday to test out the injury, it was Joe Root who emerged with Alastair Cook when the tourists batted again.

An England spokesperson confirmed Hameed was unlikely to undergo an X-ray until after the completion and the plan is for him to bat at some stage. But given that the pain was continuing to trouble him some three days after the initial blow, the outlook is not optimistic.

His return home would be a blow for the Lancashire right-hander, who has shown flashes of maturity beyond his years and lit up the first Test in Rajkot with 82 on his debut, but England at least have some time to consider their options should he be ruled out.

There is a week off between this third Test and the fourth in Mumbai and should a replacement be preferred to recalling either Gary Ballance or Ben Duckett to the side, the two reserve batsmen at present, the Lions are in Dubai.

Among the candidates in that squad are two left-handers in Nick Gubbins, who top-scored for Middlesex during their title-winning season, and Durham’s Keaton Jennings, who topped the Division One charts overall, or the Kent right-hander Daniel Bell-Drummond.

Hameed’s injury compounded a tough third day in Mohali, where tension between India and England continued to simmer, with the home side complaining about Root’s decision to stand close to the stumps at the non-striker’s end – a ploy to help his partner’s DRS use – and Virat Kohli celebrating the wicket of Ben Stokes by putting his fingers to his lips.

The gesture, which Kohli tried to get the sparse crowd to mimic and continued a battle between him and Stokes that stemmed from the all-rounder being reprimanded for obscene language on the first day, was shrugged off by the wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow after stumps.

He said: “It is up to him [Kohli]. He is quite a vocal character. That is Virat, he gets a bit wound up. We will just leave him to it. If he wants to do that then let him do it.”