Spinners must play or we will be made to pay

Now, again this is nothing personal against Ashley Giles, but they chose to take a player who has not bowled since July and who was suddenly expected to come on the tour and pick up from where he left off last winter! How did they work that one out?

So Harbhajan Singh picks up five wickets in our first innings with two going to Anil Kumble. Richard Dawson picks up four wickets (which could have been more - an excellent effort!) in their innings and our other spinner picks up . . . oh no, we didn't have one.

Who knows what would have happened if we had two spinners bowling in tandem? Could it have been something similar to what happened for the Indians in our second innings? Kumble picks up six wickets and Singh a further two. Game, set and match to India.

Sort it out - if you are not going to play two spinners in a Test in India, you never will, so why take them?

I would like to make clear that my rantings about the lack of spinners picked to play in this Test for England is a general point about decision-making from someone who cares about the plight of us lesser-spotted twirlers and of course the plight of the English team.

But, of course, I would have loved to have gone. Selection would have meant bags packed and blazer dusted down without a second thought. But that is just how I feel. I have always said that I would do anything to play for my country. Yes, even in India, the place where when I last toured I was heard to have some views about the surroundings. Any comments made in jest were on the back of a bloody tough tour for all the lads and I was looking forward to getting home.

If you remember, during that tour there was some unrest which we had to deal with, which in fact may well be far more than anything the lads are likely to encounter this time. A great deal was made about security worries, with Andy Caddick and Robert Croft deciding against going.

As I stated above, I personally, and that is the key word, would have jumped at the chance to tour, but it is a personal decision. No one would have wanted anyone to have gone if they could not have performed to their peak, which, as I know very well, can only be done at international level if you are mentally right. The question now is whether our chaps can be mentally right for tomorrow's Test.

I hope they are. I hope the lads can bounce back from this and approach the next game as upbeat as possible.

They bounced back last winter from an early setback so let's see if they can do it again.

But they have been put on the defensive after that First Test, and the mess in that match was purely because of our barmy selection policy.