The Surfer

There isn’t a quick-fix solution to being underprepared given the current situation. Practice matches sound fine in theory with plenty of upside — acclimatising to the conditions the most obvious — but in the present circumstances our players need time to recover from fatigue and injuries. Aggravating an existing injury or managing to get injured during a practice match would have greater ramifications than would some batting and/ or bowling time.

If Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir can fire at the top of the order, the others will suddenly feel better about their batting. Sometimes that's all it takes ” one blazing century by Viru (Sehwag), and suddenly things will change.

After that spark at Lord’s, Sharma hasn’t come across as a bowler who could run through the England side. He definitely is the only Indian bowler to display the hostility that the home pacers have dished out, but the wickets haven’t come. Sharma has shown that he has the skills but the three Tests have also exposed his inability to adapt to the varied pitches. He has beaten the bat with the inswinger but he hasn’t plotted well to come up with the ball that holds its line or even the yorker at the right time. Against the left-handers, he has bowled wide outside the off stump, making it easy for the batsmen the leave the ball.

‘Your dream as a kid is to play for England and when you are left out you go into some deep and dark places. The worst thing that could happen in my world was being dropped by England but when it happened I realised it wasn’t as if my world was over. Once I’d cleared the haze it almost gave me the freedom to say, “This is the player I want to be”. I was going to play for England again whatever it took.’

PERFECT POSTURE Good posture is essential, it gives me a powerful and balanced position to move to any ball quickly and with confidence. My legs can’t be too bent or my back hunched and I don’t want to have straight knees or to lean back. I want to be in a shape like the letter Z. Once you have that position, if you are stood back or stood up, it doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is the set-up. It is similar to a slip catcher’s position and, at the point of delivery, we all look the same in the cordon.

I suggest we start by temporarily suspending our critical faculties, for the next seven days at least. Shut down the part of you that demands to know whether England won this series because India's top players were too old, or too ill-prepared, or too obsessed with the Indian Premier League. Shout down the voice that wonders whether England are only No1 because the competition is not as strong as it once was or could be. The caveats belong in the small print, and can be kept for another occasion.

India are the paymasters of cricket. Every time their board auctions a TV rights package, at least five broadcasters bid. And those same broadcasters provide vital funding for other countries when India tour abroad. So if India sneezes, the whole world catches a cold.

I'm not suggesting that England should bowl long-hops to Sachin at The Oval just to keep the viewers on the sub-continent happy. But I am worried about the long-term future of Test matches.

Will there be less cricket? The chances are slim considering that the BCCI has confirmed international commitments under the FTP. Also, more cricket means more money for all concerned (Boards, sponsors, broadcasters and players), so no one complains.

Ganguly (39) is already finding his feet beyond the boundary and he will at some point be joined by Laxman (37), Dravid (38) and Tendulkar (38) a generation of batsmen who hit the ground running in Test cricket, men who made it in spite of the system, not because of it.

This is unlikely to happen again, for not only is the system still shambolic, we’ve also got Twenty20 to deal with now. There is talent there: Rohit Sharma, Kohli and Pujara, especially, seem to have the goods. Neither is it as if this generation dislikes Test cricket, or dismisses its importance, just that their skill-sets seem to fall short of both their ambitions and our expectations.

I have long worried about his workaholic tendencies. He just never stops. His conscientiousness is central to England’s success, but, whilst the players get their breaks, he never does. He dotes upon his family, but he is also incredibly loyal to his close group of friends, the England team, and, indeed, the game of cricket as a whole. Few people I have met in cricket love the game more than Flower. Probably only Duncan Fletcher, actually. Flower sees wider scenarios.

Graham Gooch There were concerns that Gooch belonged to a different era when Flower made him batting coach but England’s record run-scorer was an inspired appointment, drumming into his charges the constant need for ‘daddy’ hundreds and working for hours on end with both top batsmen and tailenders with his ‘dog ball thrower’ gadget.

His innate endurance (a less-recognised physical gift, like his knack for working the ball to the on-side) helped him on two levels. He was so fit that he barely broke a sweat, and this fitness in turn allowed him to concentrate better, his body making few demands of the mind.

Perhaps because he is not an attacking captain by nature, perhaps because he does not set tricksy fields, perhaps because he is not an instinctive changer of bowling, it is easy to overlook his virtues. Strauss is endlessly patient as a captain in that he allows strategies to unfold to their logical conclusion.

He could do with a few more runs himself – though as captain he averages more than Vaughan, Hussain and Atherton. But he has taken English cricket to a great place. The time has not yet come but it will be fascinating to see what Strauss, now 34, does next. He could write a book on the art of captaincy and conflict resolution.

His statesmanlike qualities extend beyond the routine stuff such as making bowling and fielding changes or team talks. When stories such as match fixing or even last week's riots demand a firm but sensible voice, Strauss is the man to deliver the perfect words.

There’s a need to go back to the basics of cricket — rigorous training schedules and practice matches, lay-off and rehabilitation of injured players and the art of grooming a second rung. There’s also the need to adapt the best practices of scheduling from sports like soccer where domestic, league and international fixtures are taken into account to create a seamless calendar.

IPL per se cannot be the cause of this disaster, but it's scheduling at a time when the entire Indian team needed rest most certainly is. Can anyone in an objective frame of mind disagree that the Dhonis, the Tendulkars, the Sehwags and the Gambhirs of the team should have used this opportunity to recuperate instead of further damaging their bruised bodies and jaded minds. The lure of money and the backing of the Indian Board -- who could have, if they wanted, forced them to skip the tournament - proved a greater incentive than commitment to their craft and the country.