Testing time for Indian cricket

UMPIRE'S POST

The national side rarely wins the first Test match on pitches like Lord's. Possible solution: play more money spinners in Lesotho.

Those of you agonising over India's one-wicket escape in the first Test against England at Lord's can take heart. This is better than what the team usually does while playing in unfamiliar conditions, which is, to go down 0-1 right after the first Test.

Winning the first Test at Multan on the historic tour to Pakistan in 2004 does not count. The dust, heat and wicket there could easily fit into any of several Test centres in India. The credible exceptions are winning the first Test on the last tour to South Africa, the first Test in England on the 1986 tour...you get the picture? They prove the rule.

Since 1990, in 13 series played in Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand (not counting matches in the West Indies because the pitches there have become increasingly similar to those in India), India has lost the first Test on nine occasions, winning just one and drawing three.

As Indian batsmen reconcile to the bounce and movement, the opponents grab the lead. Only two of all those centuries Sachin has scored came in such matches, and only one of Ganguly's. Dravid's best is 76.

England captain Michael Vaughan, while explaining his reasons to select Chris Tremlett, did not make any startling revelation. The tall fellow gets steep bounce and that, thought Vaughan, would unsettle the Indians.

The feeling of being alienated gets magnified at Lord's, which, for its halo, has a disconcerting slope that can throw the best of bowlers off his line (remember the first-day bowling of Indian seamers?).

The first Test of the last tour to England readily springs to mind, in which the top batting order crumbled at Lord's, only to be mocked at by a century from Ajit Agarkar, also known as the Bombay Duck in the southern hemisphere for his many scoreless innings.

It is a problem that can be solved "" but will not be "" by adopting the simple policy of playing more warm-up matches. On this England tour, India played just two before the first Test and none before the second. So all Dravid can do about fielding Yuvraj in the second Test is wonder.

There was a time when teams played up to a dozen side matches before working out their 11 for the first Test. And there were first-class games between Tests. Those were also teams that necessarily carried a reserve wicketkeeper and openers as insurance against fatigue and injury.

Those days will never come back. They will always be repelled back into history by the irrefutable argument of business interests. Instead of playing side games, why not stage a money spinner in Malaysia, Ireland or Lesotho?