Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer show the way

The start of this Test was dominated by swing bowling. The feeling that England's batsmen had rather meekly submitted was born out by the performances of Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer.

Never mind that Tendulkar and Ganguly outscored both of India's openers, that first partnership was key. This was when England's bowlers were bowling at their best, but with each delivery that went by, the pair were making life easier for the middle order.

Tendulkar and Ganguly both batted well, but Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer gave them the best opportunity to do so.

Karthik's not a batsman we know all that well (we've heard he's a superior wicketkeeper to Dhoni, which is handy) but Jaffer's an opener of some talent. He's been in and out of the side with clockwork regularity and we still fear for him.

A good old-fashioned blunting the new ball innings of 62 here will soon become just an innings of 62 shorn of context. Some other opener will thrash a one-day hundred against Zimbabwe and steal his place.

We know this post's dry and humourless. It's Monday morning. We're just getting our eye in. We don't want to be making any loose jokes outside off-stump when we're still vulnerable to the moving