India v England, 1st Test, preview

In about 11 hours, a chaotic England team take to the field in Nagpur for the first Test against India. Preparations have been farcical and they've been thin on luck, but it's time to get on with it. However worrying it may be, the start of a new series brings fresh hope and excitement, especially one littered with debutants. Ah, it's like the 1990s all over again...

Hope and excitement are probably two adjectives Ian Blackwell and Alastair Cook, the likely two debutants, might use to describe their feeling; "bricking it" and "is this for real?" might be closer to the mark, however. My colleage at Cricinfo, Rahul Bhattacharya, provides an interesting preview of tomorrow's Test, which ought to carry a health warning to English readers.

Presuming they don't return home this evening, those two should be Ian Blackwell, whom Indian viewers will remember more for a 68-ball 82 against them in the Champions Trophy of 2002, and Shaun Udal, 18 days shy of his 37th birthday. Udal's 690 first-class wickets have come at 32.56 apiece; and Blackwell's 185 at 43.39. They have between them three Test victims. They are up against a pair with over 700, and the surface is expected to assist them.

The pair Rahul speaks of are Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, two leaping, enthusastic and fabulously talented spinners - and two of my favourite to watch, although I enjoy watching any spinner bowl (apart from Ian Salisbury. Remember him?). I won't, however, enjoy them outbowl England's in this Test, as it merely highlights our woeful, depressing and never-gonna-be-fixed dearth of spin bowlers in England. Ian Blackwell might well quote his career economy rate of 2.88 runs per over, but it's wickets we need, Ian, and you won't have faced Virender Sehwag or Sachin Tendulkar all that often. (although, truth be known, he has once or twice in some one-dayers).

Ian Blackwell is arguably the new Darren Lehmann - in terms of his athletic finesse, if nothing else. We need a Singh, a Kumble - and although we have Monty Panesar, I highly doubt Duncan Fletcher will want to risk extending his/England's tail any further.

Rahul goes on:

If England win the toss, thus, it will not be a bad place for Alastair Cook to debut. "We discussed him in our bowler's meeting last evening," said Rahul Dravid. "Some of the guys who have played against him in county cricket think he is a very good player."

I don't want to hype the lad too much, especially considering that I've yet to see him play, but by all accounts the bloke can bat rather well. He hit a double hundred against Australia, for Essex, in a tour-game in last summer's Ashes and is exceptionally well regarded. For all the commotion and chaos surrounding him at the moment, this is an opportunity afforded to very few: open the innings for England and, oh by the way, your country needs you to make a hundred because we're falling apart at the seams. A nightmare it might seem, but if he shows some bottle and has a good series, the selectors will wipe the expected 3-0 loss from their minds rather quickly. Technically-correct, left-handed opening batsmen are a rare treat and ones to savour.

My other blog will be carrying partial live coverage of the Test (in terms of night owls commenting and chatting to their heart's content), but otherwise tune into Sky, or Test Match Special or, of course, Cricinfo.

Will Luke writes for Cricinfo.com and edits The Corridor of Uncertainty