Meanwhile India’s best one-day bowler in the last twelve months, Harbhajan Singh, has arrived to do battle without his most potent arrow. The doosra has gone and doubtlessly will reappear in the Tests and that will straightaway make him a better player. With different people watching the game, maybe his confidence will reappear!!

Sadly then India only had three players who emerged with their reputations enhanced. When you are a giant like Anil Kumble it is tough to make that claim but he showed that he must be in India’s one-day squad and so too must Zaheer Khan whose topsy turvy one-day career seems on track at the moment. Both though have little to offer other than their primary skill and while that is not the best state of affairs, it is something India have to accept in their current plight.

And in Mahendra Singh Dhoni India have found a player with the stomach for a fight. If I say ‘found’ after so much adulation it is only because this was his first real test as an international cricketer. He had never played outside the sub-continent, Zimbabwe and Kenya and showed that he didn’t mind the bounce; if he did fail, it was in countering it rather than shying away from it. Now there is a quality India can do with.