The Surfer

Watling, despite having only kept intermittently for Northern Districts in recent years, is not a part-timer.

He was, by all accounts, a very good wicketkeeper right up to under-19 level and that should hold him in good stead this summer.

While his test batting average in six matches is a disappointing 24.5, Watling probably offers more with the bat than Young.

So, Ajmal, instead of using his wrist to pass on the ball to the fingers, (as Swann, or any conventional ‘offie’ would do) uses his wrist as the major body part imparting the spin. Getting the wrist in position for an off-break takes that extra fraction of a second, which in turn means he has the delayed, jerky action that is so hotly debated. This novel wrist-spinning style is also the reason why Ajmal has been able to stock up his bowling arsenal with a ‘skiddy’ straighter-one, or what he likes to term the teesra.

England's top batsmen submitted passively, stroke-less and without an attempt at assertion, for two totals that were not worthy of world dominance. It may be winner in its comfort zones of home and Australia, but as soon as it flies east of the Suez it collapses as if it was batting in a sandstorm.

Mohinder Amarnath, now a member of the national selection panel, told bowlers to bowl from halfway down the pitch. That’s how seriously he prepared for a foreign tour. And mind you, we trained with ‘real’ cricket balls. There was a risk of getting injured even before the tour started. But we took our chances. Your concentration had to be impeccable, your footwork immaculate, your timing perfect and your judgment spot on. Anything outside the off or leg stump was left alone. Like I said before, the idea was always to stay on the wicket. Runs would follow.

But one point is lost between all these arguments – the role of bowling coach Eric Simons. Before the arrival of the South African, Ishant has taken 54 wickets from 19 Tests at an average of 34.42 and his strike rate was 63.5. After the arrival of Simons (January 10, 2010), the right-arm pace bowler’s performance hasn’t touched the upward curve, grabbing 78 wickets from 25 Tests. Ishant’s average in this period has gone up to 39.11, and his strike rate too has touched 66.33.

And so who knows who Younis Khan really is, other than those friends and family he escaped to? A little like those dandelion seeds (and also like his cricket mentor Rashid Latif), he's engaging and substantial but the minute you've got it, you know you have nothing at all in your hands but the wisp of an elusive presence.

The key to the last three days is that England still haven't been able to pick Saeed Ajmal's length. He can change his pace so quickly from his wrist and England just do not seem able to read his action.

There was nothing here to question, nothing to arouse suspicion even in the most cynical observer. Scoring patterns were not like a particularly badly executed foxtrot — slow, slower, quickest, quick, slow — and while there were some unexpected dismissals, Jonathan Trott bagging the wicket of a settled Younis Khan for instance, there was nothing disquietingly unfathomable on view. And some may feel that is a pity. They may think that it was Pakistan’s maverick nature that made them such compelling opponents. Yet as so much of that eccentricity aroused justified suspicion, it became colour we could do without.

This England team live by the mantra that if you stand still you will be overtaken. Everything about their cricket is thoroughly modern, from their high-visibility, brilliant white kit, to their bleep test fielding drills with musical accompaniment. Their methods obviously do work. They are the world’s best side in an era in which macho players can score Test match hundreds in 69 balls. By stark contrast, Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s insouciant captain, barely moved out of second gear yesterday – and off-white gear it is, too.

Since the England tour these are the averages of India's top guns in overseas Tests: Sehwag: 15.90. Gambhir: 20.50. Dravid: 52.42. Tendulkar: 37.29. Laxman: 20.29. Dhoni: 26.83. Yet to question any of their spots is sacrilege. Alternatives on offer from the 17-man squad chosen for the tour are being cast aside with disdain. The message to Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma is this: You were really on the plane to make up the numbers. No matter how woeful the senior pros get, their positions remain untouched. No matter how good your first-class records might be or how obvious your talent is, you are the designated bench-warmers. Only when a permanent resident makes way of his own volition will a spot open up. Till then wait, watch and twiddle those thumbs. And oh yes, have a net.

His recent form is one of them — just 428 runs have come in his last 17 innings. But form is a fleeting thing. Besides, in Sehwag, the ability to crack open a game forever lies latent, ready to burst forth of a sudden. The other trend is more serious. Since his 151 here, an innings remarkable for its richly restrained strokeplay, Sehwag hasn't made a century outside the sub-continent in 11 Tests.