Having seen England’s batsmen flounder against spin, the home side are bound to take the pace off the ball. England’s options to countering this, apart from showing a bit more nous, are limited. Nick Knight could play in place of Vaughan or Flintoff in themiddle order, but his range of stroke against good spinners is similarly limited.Often, making mistakes is the best way of learning (though the lessons from the one-dayers in Pakistan do not appear to have stuck). If Fletcher has identified the young pair as the future, they must learn to adapt their game to suit – and ultimately conquer – foreign conditions..

It took Fred Titmus one look and two minutes to rescue the tyro off-spinner from possible oblivion. Then he told Harbhajan Singh to reduce his run- up and stand up straight and sideways in the delivery stride. It took Fred Titmus one look and two minutes to rescue the tyro off-spinner from possible oblivion. Then he told Harbhajan Singh to reduce his run- up and stand up straight and sideways in the delivery stride.
From chucker to pukka in a trice. It was simple but devastatingly effective wisdom, the results of which played a seminal part last week in India’s magnificent Test series defeat of Australia. The home side won 2-1 with their nervetingling two-wicket victory in the final match in Madras and Singh, a Sikh from the Punjab, finished with 15 wickets, 32 in the series at 16.69 runs each. He also hit the winning runs.The harbingers for Harbhajan were not auspicious when he arrived at Lord’s two years ago under instruction from the International Cricket Council.

He had played a handful of Tests but his action was under a cloud, reported by umpires and match referees, constantly murmured about. The New Zealand former left-arm spinner Steve Boock said he was not “within a cooee of a legal action”.There to greet him was Titmus, veteran international off- break bowler, winner of 53 Test caps, taker of 2,830 first-class wickets. He had been hired by the ICC to check if Singh’s action was illegal and if so how it could be improved. “It was pretty obvious what he was doing wrong,” said Titmus.