Home remedy

When you're ailing, there's nothing quite like a thick blanket, a warm bed, a few helpings of mother's broth and perhaps some sport on TV. After a turbulent two months in the Southern Cape, many of the Indian cricketers will be ready for some pampering. But most will barely have time for one home-cooked meal - and, in Sourav Ganguly's case, a few cuddles with his new-born daughter - before they take on an inexperienced and unfancied English side at Mohali.

In many ways, it is a worst-case scenario for India - a three-Test series where they have everything to lose. The Indian public expects a brownwash and nothing less than 3-0, the result in the 1992-93 series when the two sides last crossed paths in India, will do. Down the years, India have shown an alarming tendency to get crushed under the weight of expectations, and will need to be at their sharpest to avoid a recurrence.

India's greatest achievement in recent times was the defeat of the Australians on home soil earlier this year. Yet, it was only after they had been thrashed raw in Mumbai and then slammed onto the mat the first two days in Kolkata that they fought back. With the pressure easing off and with public expectations of an upset win against the invincible Aussies (as they had been dubbed) ­dwindling to nothingness, India stormed back to play their best cricket in years. Being underdogs helped against the Aussies. Against England, the roles are reversed, with the visitors considered longer shots for success than a crippled horse at the Grand National.

It is complacency that India need to steer well clear of. Seventeen years ago, David Gower's team arrived on Indian shores still reeling from a 0-5 drubbing at home against the West Indies. The first Test in Mumbai provided no respite. An energetic jack-in-the-box named Laxman Sivaramakrishnan bamboozled England with an exhibition of leg-spin bowling and India cruised to an eight-wicket victory amid the usual allusions to snake charmers and Indian rope tricks. After that, they self-destructed with reckless abandon. Wracked by internal wrangling and dressing room intrigues, and assailed by some magnificent batting from Mike Gatting, Tim Robinson and Graeme Fowler, India went to pieces. Siva, who picked up 18 wickets in the first three innings, could capture only five more as England cut and swept the Indian attack to ribbons.

India has the uncanny ability to unearth new heroes ­for touring sides, Englishmen particularly. In 1984-85, Gatting rescued his Test career and Fowler and Robinson established theirs. In 1993, Graeme Hick, after having been tormented by quicks the world over, found his feet against the Indian spinners to script a magnificent 178 in Mumbai.

In Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Marcus Trescothick and Mark Ramprakash, this England team has a batting line-up that has passed its trial-by-spin with honour in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But in Matthew Hoggard - if he can sustain length and line - they can hope to find their Neil Foster, and India will do well to stay alive to the threat.

India's home record will intimidate most teams, but a closer look will reveal a few cracks. They have struggled to beat weak teams like New Zealand and Zimbabwe and were beaten comprehensively by South Africa 18 months ago.

Most worrying for India is Anil Kumble's apparent susceptibility to the law of diminishing returns. Their greatest match-winner at home in the 90s, he hasn't looked the same bowler since his perfect ten against Pakistan in 1999; South Africa played him like an average trundler. Kumble's declining fortunes have as much to do with a bad shoulder - it needed surgery early this year - as with the reluctance of Indian curators to dish out cracked mud-bowls.

India owe the series win against Australia to the beguiling skills of Harbhajan Singh. But Harbhajan has struggled to recapture his magic ever since and England, having played out Muttiah Muralitharan and Saqlain Mushtaq, will square up to Harbhajan with a degree of confidence. India will most certainly look to play an additional slow bowler, and offspinner Sarandeep Singh and slow left-armer Murali Kartik are the prime candidates, but a lot will depend on Ganguly, who has shown a strange lack of confidence in a third spinner. But with Javagal Srinath - who bowled in South Africa with a zest and intelligence not seen in recent years - ruled out of the series with a broken palm bone, he might look at it differently.

The support cast of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, the great left-handed pace hopes of Indian cricket, seem to have regressed. Zaheer has lost a couple of yards in pace, Nehra his control. They were not only ineffective, but also profligate. And by now, it should be clear to everyone that Ajit Agarkar, who can be nippy at his best, will never be the allrounder India expect him to be. India carried five medium-pacers to South Africa, and the least worst of them will bowl against England.

They can expect a better performance from the batsmen, but the batting order is by no means settled. Sourav Ganguly's worries start right at the top. Shiv Sunder Das is clearly India's best opener in years, but there is a disconcerting fragility about his batting and he has developed a dangerous tendency to give his wicket away to nothing-shots. However, it is the choice of his partner that will exercise India more.

India will be tempted to carry on with Dasgupta after his gritty display in South Africa. It will give them the right balance and allow them to play three spinners. But it's time India took a long-term approach to the issue of openers, and they must decide whether Dasgupta can bear the load over four series. India tour the West Indies in April and England in July, and if they can't settle the opener issue before that, they might as well open with a night-watchman.

Connor Williams has done nothing in South Africa to make us suspect he is international class, and a fit-again Sadagoppan Ramesh would be the prime contender, with Wasim Jaffer and Vinayak Mane queuing up behind him. The emergence of Virender Sehwag has given the selectors a real headache. With Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and VVS Laxman cast-iron certainties in the middle order, Sehwag can be accommodated only at the expense of the second specialist opener. Assuming that happens, Dasgupta can expect to be the fall guy at the top.

The biggest problem for India is the captain's form. For all his bluster to the contrary, Ganguly knows that he hasn't pulled his weight for a while now. While he is a highly motivated captain who commands the respect and loyalty of his men, India can't afford the luxury - as Australia could when Mark Taylor went through a two-year run drought ­- of going into a series with a non-performing captain. Ganguly also has to rein himself in and make sure that he doesn't let his aggressive streak spiral out of control. Last March, India fed on the Australians' perceived arrogance and on their misplaced aggression to haul themselves back into contention. What they don't need to do now is provide England with a similar incentive. Hussain has gone about making friends and influencing people since he arrived in India. Ganguly would do well to turn up for tosses on time, be polite to the media and ensure that his team don't behave like ill-mannered bullies, especially in the wake of all that transpired at St George's Park in the second Test.

The odds favour India, but India, as they have shown in the past, are quite capable of beating any odds.