Even as England were pushing for a draw in their final warm-up match, the management managed to get a first look at the Test pitch in the adjacent, main stadium, and returned not without some trepidation.

Those who have envisaged something other than the sort of flat unforgiving pitch that has characterised the Sardar Patel Stadium may well prove to be right, because four days out from the game there was not a blade of grass to be seen on the pitch, with the prediction that well as it might play for a day or even two, it is sure to fall apart as the Test progresses.

When Alastair Cook goes out for the toss on Thursday morning, he will do so with fingers crossed: not all tosses prove to be as important to the outcome of matches as is often thought, but bat first in this first Test and the chances of winning should be greatly enhanced.

In no way should this distract England from their planned path. They perform best when, whether it be at home or in UAE or Sri Lanka, they have a full hand of three seamers and a single spinner. Six batsmen, those who played in the final match against Haryana, have already been inked in, augmented by Matt Prior, while Graeme Swann has rejoined the team after a few days at home. Doubts exist only as to which seamers will back Jimmy Anderson. As it stands, both the injured bowlers, Steve Finn and Stuart Broad, have made excellent progress (Finn particularly so, beyond expectation).

So there was considerable encouragement in the way that Tim Bresnan bowled on the final afternoon against Haryana. After a lack of success in getting the ball to reverse swing in the first innings, England made a concerted effort to get it to go in the second, and by the 10th over of the innings, by ignoring any other objective, had got it to move sufficiently to make life awkward for batsmen, with Bresnan collecting two wickets and beating the bat more than anyone in the match.

Guardian Service