Indians love to live up to their expectations especially when it comes to starting poorly on overseas assignments. Today at Lords, India displayed the grit to start in a fashion that is expected of them. What surprises the most is the inability of the Indian bowlers to bowl at a decent line and length. The ball stayed either too short or too straight. More often than not, they drifted it down the leg side. Every bowler including the deadly Kumble faltered and faltered badly. The presence of a specialist bowling coach has done more bad than good.

If Indians have to get back into this test match, they need to bowl accurately and steadily. They need to use Tendulkar more often and bowl the faster bowlers in short spells. It was evident that faster bowlers were getting wayward after bowling for half hour or so. Kumble should be used extensively as he has already been.

Talking about the sitter dropped by Dinesh Karthik just before the end of first session, what was he thinking? It was one of the most simplest catches. Even my house maid would have caught that while mopping the floor.

As for England, the top three batsmen played brilliantly. Their positive thinking was key to their success which led to punishing the Indian bowlers whenever they drifted. It was evident that the English batsmen were brimming with confidence from the victory over West Indies couple months ago.