The Surfer

“After the West Indies tour I felt I had a chance as both openers had not done well and Virender Sehwag was not available for the first couple of games. Also, the last time I played here I did well. I don't understand the reason why they are not considering me. I have got the runs in domestic cricket.“

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said after the Trent Bridge defeat that Jaffer would have been ideal as a stop-gap replacement for Sehwag. With Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir back for the third Test, Jaffer is no longer anxious about a call from the selectors. “There's very remote chance now, it's out of my mind now,“ he said.

Limited-overs internationals expose players to quality opposition, but not in a way that equips them for the challenges of a five-day game. This Zimbabwe side has been quite competitive at One-Day International level, but that's largely because of its battery of slow bowlers; now the team finds itself facing a format where a line-up of solid seam bowlers, something it notably lacks, is the foundation of most strong outfits. Bangladesh, likewise, play far more limited-overs than Test cricket, and again its spinners have been its most potent weapons, thanks to the country's low and slow home pitches. Away from home, particularly in Tests, Bangladesh's bowlers have consistently struggled.

Disguise is paramount, and, as yet, the England batsmen, while negating Kumar to some extent by standing down the pitch (a more competent stumper than MS Dhoni would stop that soon enough), appear not yet to have broken the code of which way he is going to move the ball. Kumar does not noticeably telegraph his intention by a change of action which some, in going from side on to more open, do. Nor is there a discernibly different grip. Instead it comes from the wrist action: he works the ball as if attempting to force it round an obstacle mid-pitch.

The credit is India's alone. The prattle about other sports learning from India's example seems insufferably pompous coming from a game whose history has been as riddled with controversy as cricket's has.

Indeed, Indian cricketers have given the nation many hours of joy. And as Ramachandra Guha pointed out in his sociological history of Indian cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field, more is demanded of the cricketers because they are the only ones who make Indians feel that their country matters in the pecking order, where it is at the top. They give Indians something to root for. So they have no choice but to win, which places a superhuman burden on 11 men—because the rest of the Indians can’t. And make no mistake, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and their teammates, are more upset about the loss than any of the fans are. They can bounce back; it won’t be easy. But if they don’t, it is because they are facing a superior team. There is no shame in losing to the better team.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is right to point out that many of his team, in effect, are now in the middle of a seven‑Test series being played over a nine‑week period. For that, blame the Indian board which sanctions their contribution to the future tours programme. However, that does not excuse the lackadaisical manner in which they prepared for the first Test, something which allowed England to sprint out of the blocks at Lord's and then stretch the lead in Nottingham.

It is a role Sehwag is rather well placed to fill. He is, of course, one of the finest batsmen of this and any generation, a man who grabbed Test-match opening batsmanship by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into an era forever postmarked Twenty20.

No other great No.3 has suffered as much as Dravid. Out of Ricky Ponting, Don Bradman, Viv Richards and Jacques Kallis, the West Indian is the only one to have opened — and he did so just twice. Dravid has opened 21 times, averaging just 36 at the position.

VVS Laxman said early in his career that he would rather face the second ball of the day than open the innings — the mindset is supposedly starkly different. The point was well taken by the team management. At the fag end of a 15-year career, Dravid still awaits his turn.

"It's been a bit mad on Twitter and Facebook for the last couple of days," Elstone said. "I've known for a couple of weeks that I was going to be doing 12th man in the Test, but it was only when Jonathan Trott got his shoulder injury that I realised I was going to be on the field quite a bit. It's a bit daunting going into that England dressing room in the first place but all the players were great."

Teams now require gamechangers in the role, counterattackers with the bat who can also pile on the misery at an astonishing rate when their teams are well set.

In that role Prior has flourished and his keeping has improved to such an extent that the order in which the terms batsman and wicketkeeper are joined has become irrelevant. Dhoni has to restore that verve to his game, and do it quickly.