Cricket: Depleted England must learn from Indian history

By DEREK PRINGLE

When it comes to cricket, there are two Indias - the team who are indomitable at home and the team who are hapless abroad.

England, on their first tour there for nine years, will meet a side who have lost just two test series at home since David Gower's team beat them in 1984-85.

Logic dictates that the tourists, depleted by experienced players such as Alec Stewart, Darren Gough and Andy Caddick, and distracted by worries over security, will do well not to lose all three tests.

Captain Nasser Hussain may be returning to home soil - he was born in Madras - but neither he nor a single member of his squad has played a test in India.

For Hussain, the pessimism will sound familiar. A similar forecast preceded the tours to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both of which were won.

Yet England, who will be in New Zealand early next year, were at full strength then and arrived cock-a-hoop after beating the West Indies for the first time in 31 years. They also did not have worries about their safety, something that could niggle away for weeks.

Those who feel the players' reticence over touring to be a big fuss over nothing should remember England's last trip in 1992-93.

In a one-day match in Mohali, just outside the northern city of Chandigarh, where the first test is scheduled to start on December 3, 100,000 people tried to invade a ground already full. Shots were fired, killing one policeman and injuring another. In a region where sport, religion and politics can cause frenzy, extra caution should not be scoffed at.

Young players are pliable and optimism can take root, but it helps to have a precedent, which is why England's captain would do well to study Gower's tour.

On that tour, amid upheaval following the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Sir Percy Norris, Britain's deputy high commissioner, they won the five-test series 2-1 after losing the first test - and without Ian Botham, who declined to go.

India's batsmen, an awesome sight when on song, can falter under pressure. Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the world's finest, can be worn down by a strict line probing outside his off-stump. Of course it is a fine line, especially against a batting order that includes such strokemakers as Vangipurappu Laxman, Rahul Dravid, new boy Virender Sehwag and captain Sourav Ganguly, but still one the Australians had success with before their gung-ho tendencies allowed India to sniff a way out.

In batting and pace bowling, Gower's side were not dissimilar in experience or ability to Hussain's.

In the spin department, the master key to most cricket on the subcontinent, the gulf is vast. In 1984, Phil Edmonds and Pat Pocock were the equal of anything India had.

There is something of a honey trap here and, while most of the pitches aid spin, Indian batsmen play it better than anyone. In fact, they murder it, as Shane Warne can attest.

This time, it is India with Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh who hold all the wizardry. England's main spinning options come from two rookie off-spinners, Richard Dawson and Martyn Ball, and left-armer Ashley Giles, who can barely jog following an operation on his Achilles tendon. Giles, the leading wicket-taker a year ago in Pakistan, would be vital if he were fully fit, but he is not expected to play in any of the three warm-up matches leading up to the tests.

Kumble's time in county cricket, with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, will make his dipping top-spinners and googlies less of a mystery than when England last toured nine years ago. In that series, which England lost 3-0, he took 21 wickets in three matches.

By contrast, Harbhajan's bouncy off-spin will have been seen by England only on video scything its way through Australia's batting line-up. Along with Laxman's runs, it was Harbhajan's 32 wickets in three tests that clinched India's comeback to defeat Australia.

England's batsmen must sell their wickets dearly, something they did not do against Australia.

Providing they follow that lead all the way down the order, run scoring should not be as much a problem as taking wickets.

India's return from South Africa, providing they carry on as haplessly as they started, could also help England's cause, though there could be a backlash should they lose heavily.

As Indian players down the ages have found to their cost, with their effigies burned in the streets, losing a series at home is not an option.

- INDEPENDENT