Batting at No 5 might help Dravid

Having seen England give everything they had and fall short, India will believe they start favourites for really they only have one issue to address. One of India’s greatest ever is stumbling, a proud man is trying hard but it is as if the cricket ball suddenly speaks a different language, that he needs an interpreter where once he could lip-read. The captain, a young man in Kharagpur with stars in his eyes when Rahul Dravid ruled the cricket world, is backing him all the way and the fact that India have been winning has eased the debate.

Now the consensus is that he must bat at number five, a rather more protected position than number three. One wicket down has always been the proud man’s position for it requires you to double up as an opener and be able to keep the momentum going if needed. Dravid has been among the greatest ever at that number and he is bound to be possessive about it. But sometimes we don’t know what is best for us, sometimes we must take a little backward step, rid ourselves of our possessions and view the world. It is very difficult to do and that is why someone must take that call for him.

And maybe that is the way ahead. The man who protected so many from number three might just benefit from a little bit of it himself. It might give him the space he needs, it might spark a revival, he might find a new home. The great don’t like to be cushioned, it’s like asking a fighter pilot to work at a desk, but he must try.

Meanwhile England will find Mohali cold and welcoming. Chennai must have opened its hearts to them but they will be more at home with the conditions in the north. They need to pick themselves up for they will have been shattered by what happened in Chennai; a match in which they were the better team for 70% of the time. But the champions win the big points and England held back only briefly, but fatally. They are back where they began and it is always more difficult to climb when the summit has been sighted and denied.

Pietersen bravely played five bowlers in the first Test and that will play on his mind once again. Inevitably when you play five, one bowler gets underbowled but in the first Test Pietersen would have wanted more from Harmison, a strapping man who can be very quick and uncomfortable but who has the most fragile temperament in world cricket. It will be a brave captain who will play Harmison as one of four bowlers. But playing five means batting Flintoff at number six and while he can be destructive with the bat he is currently a bowling all-rounder; streets ahead of any other bowler in the team but sadly, a number seven. Maybe it is time to turn to Collingwood a bit more.

Crucially England cannot think that they are five days away from going home for Christmas. They have won the goodwill of a nation but a Test win would currently be far more wholesome. Sport is as much a test of character as it is of skill, often more so, and England would be under scrutiny on that front.