Kumble and Harbhajan are more than a handful

India has found winning ways again; a Test win is indeed a win and nothing less just because it was achieved at home. Sourav Ganguly and his boys need to be commended for this win, which came right after the Virender Sehwag-Mike Denness saga. This is the weakest English team to have visited India, and they did not really put up a fight in Mohali. Having said that, the Indian team showed a lot of character to come through the crisis and emerge victorious.

To add to the English woes, their fielding was well below par and the catching nothing short of dismal. The Indian batting has always been comfortable against such type of bowling, lacking both express pace and deceptive spin. I was impressed, though, by the way Graham Thorpe and Craig White batted in their second innings.

I sympathise with Ganguly for having gone in to a Test match with three new medium-pacers. Ganguly must have prayed and hoped that England won the toss and saved him from taking a decision. As luck would have it, Ganguly himself won the toss and was asked to deal with the dilemma: to bat or not to bat? The Indian skipper opted to bowl first, which I think was a defensive one, the decision made only to deprive the opposing side of conditions that suited their bowling attack. The three new pace bowlers bowled reasonably well, and they are gaining in confidence, which augurs well for Indian cricket.

As I mentioned before, this is not the strongest of the English sides to have visited India. Their batting revolves around the opening batsmen, and they expect a lot from their skipper Nasser Hussain. I must admit, though, that this English side got better as the game progressed at Mohali. They are showing signs of improvement, which is a good sign for the remaining two Tests.

I regard Nasser Hussain as a natural leader with a strong mind. He was very impressive in the manner in which he utilised his limited bowling resources. It is very unfortunate that their seam bowling is not well supported by spin. The young off-spinner Richard Dawson is promising, but he has to develop the art of turning the ball prodigiously to be successful on Indian wickets. Dawson's line erred slightly on the offside, and there were times when he allowed Rahul Dravid to make easy runs. I am sure that the young spinner would have learnt a lot from watching Harbhajan Singh in action.

To add to the English woes, their fielding was well below par and the catching nothing short of dismal. The Indian batting has always been comfortable against such type of bowling, lacking both express pace and deceptive spin. I was impressed, though, by the way Graham Thorpe and Craig White batted in their second innings. They seemed to have gotten the hang of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, and I expect them to play a very important role in the coming Tests. If England have to make a match of it, their frontline batsmen must stay on and put up a tall score.

Talking about spin, it was Harbhajan Singh who threw spanners into the English batting in their first innings, with a clever mix of drifters and straighter ones. In the second innings, it was the much-familiar sight of Kumble causing havoc, picking up six wickets to destroy England. Kumble's success can be attributed to his line and length; generally English batsmen do not read a bowler from his hand. They have a genuine weakness against such bowlers, which was well exploited by the seasoned leg-spinner.

Another bright aspect to emerge from this Mohali Test is young fast bowler Tinu Yohannan. I am much impressed by his confident approach to the game. Obviously he has the advantage of sport running in his blood, and one could make that out from his body language. Yohannan bowled extremely well and should serve Indian cricket for a long time. Deep Dasgupta too is fast learning at the highest level; he has improved in leaps and bounds as a wicket-keeper and batsman. His maiden Test hundred just went to show that he has the right temperament for batting in Tests.

England will have to do a lot of homework before they go in to the second Test match. They are up against the might of possibly the best spin combination in contemporary cricket. This time around, however, they will be under pressure right from the word outset when Javagal Srinath, after his successes in South Africa, takes the red cherry in his hand and runs in breathing fire.