Had the Jaws theme played around Old Trafford the moment Kuldeep Yadav was thrown the ball, the sense of foreboding could not have been more apparent.
For England were confronted by an old and familiar foe in Manchester. A foe that has seemingly taunted and tamed them for as long as most of us can remember. A foe that, in various guises, has inflicted Ashes defeats, subcontinent whitewashes and global event exits. Even as recently as the Under-19 World Cup. Wrist-spin. Even the words are enough to have them throwing salt over shoulders and standing on one leg at Lord's.
This was the second T20I in succession between these sides in which an India wrist-spinner has claimed a five-for and defined the game. On the previous occasion, in Bangalore, it was the legspin of Yuzvendra Chahal that inflicted a collapse of eight wickets for eight runs upon England. This time it was the left-arm wrist-spin of Kuldeep who, within three minutes, dismissed the cream of England's limited-over batting on the way to achieving the first five-for by a spinner in a T20I in England. Turning the ball both ways, varying his pace by more than 20 mph from one delivery to the next, and retaining his control either way, it was fine bowling, certainly.
But if something keeps happening, it can't be dismissed as an aberration.
It wasn't just the number of wickets taken by Kuldeep that was striking (though that was plenty alarming enough). It was the manner of them. To see England's two best batsmen of the last couple of years, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, prodding hopefully at the ball, no idea which way it would turn, was to see men confronted by something they didn't recognise or understand.
To see Alex Hales - the man with three of the four highest scores made by England batsmen in T20Is - rendered strokeless (his 8 occupied 18 torturous deliveries) was painful. England had no answer to India's spin attack. And this on a fresh, if dry, track that offered no undue assistance to the bowler.
"It wasn't a case of us chipping it up in the air," Morgan said. "He completely deceived us. He took three wickets in four balls and deceived us. I thought he bowled well.
"But we know we can play him better than that. We need to. Between now and the next game, we need to assess our plans, make sure they're the right ones and stick with them."
Might it be relevant that none of the three men Kuldeep dismissed in the 14th over - Eoin Morgan, Bairstow and Root - had played in the IPL in the past year? It might be. Just as it might be relevant that Buttler, who excelled in the IPL, was the one man to pick him. Either way, it underlined the impression that England lack exposure to such bowling. They face little - or any - of it in their own domestic cricket and they play few games on surfaces that encourage it. Indeed, as the example of Somerset shows, counties are actively discouraged from preparing such pitches. It means that, when they are confronted by it, the results are usually ugly.
"It's like any challenge," Morgan added. "If you're facing a guy who bowls 95mph it's very difficult to replicate. And if you're facing a guy who turns it both ways and disguises it well, it's very difficult to replicate because there is nobody else who bowls like that."
It is not an ideal time to learn, then, that the ECB have cancelled both their pace programme and spin placements due to budget cuts. While there is some doubt over how much benefit the pace programme provided - too many pace bowlers have sustained injuries for its loss to be mourned - the system of placing young spinners under the mentorship of experienced pros, such as Jeetan Patel in Wellington, or Stuart MacGill in Sydney, during the English winter had clear benefits. Choosing that as an area to cut costs - rather than the increasing sums spent on bureaucracy, legal fees and consultants - suggests, once again, that cricket isn't always the priority at the ECB.
There were some positives. England's running between the wickets was excellent, their ground fielding was good - it is the one area where they might be better than India - and David Willey, with the bat in particular, seems to be growing in stature as an international player. He is the only man in the side with a better strike-rate than Buttler. And Buttler's enduring form and flair provides hope of many better days ahead. Nobody has ever made seven half-centuries in eight T20 innings before. He is a class act.
Meanwhile, up the road, Ben Stokes returned to cricket with some success. Opening the batting for Durham in a warm-up match ahead of the T20 Blast, he thrashed an unbeaten 85 from 45 balls against a North East Premier League XI containing several players with international experience. It was his bowling that was missed here, but any England side is stronger for Stokes' inclusion and his return is not far away now.
Most of all, this was a chance to learn. England might have been lulled into thinking they were a little better than they are by playing an Australia side lacking several of its best players. Here they were given a masterclass in T20 cricket and a reminder of how far they have to go in this format. If they can learn from some of India's tactics - the excellent use of the wider ball, in particular - and incorporate them into their own game, this could be a valuable experience.
That problem with quality spin remains, though. While England continue to fail to nurture the skill among their own bowlers, their batsmen will continue to be exposed to it at international level. In Test, ODI and T20I cricket.