Sunday, December 2, 2001 "The England captain," said the book-jacket blurb, "bestrode the subcontinent like a colossus ..." It was 25 years ago, the book was Christopher Martin-Jenkins's account of England's tour of India in 1976-77, and the captain was Tony Greig. Colossal in build as well as impact, Greig led from the front as England battled their way to a superb 3-1 victory. Nasser Hussain isn't quite so big - but he will need to be in the next six weeks.

For the fourth time in a year, Hussain's England are setting out on mission impossible. In Pakistan and Sri Lanka last winter, they sneaked in like Tom Cruise and stole all the Test Championship points, but at home to Australia, they were the ones who got a mugging. Now comes the fourth action-adventure in the series, and several of the stars are missing - Gough, Caddick, Stewart and Atherton, the only ever-presents in England's 25 Tests under Duncan Fletcher. If Nasser pulls off another subcontinental victory, it will be that rare thing: a sequel with a stronger story than the original.

England are even more rank outsiders than they were last winter. The first Test at Mohali clearly gives them their best chance of an upset, yet some bookmakers are offering an insulting 11-1. England's batting is solid, seasoned and balanced, but still no match on paper for Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. Their bowling is desperately raw, and although India's selectors have generously picked three unknown seamers themselves, you wonder why Hussain and Fletcher don't seem to be considering an all-seam attack at a ground where visiting spinners have only ever taken seven wickets at an average of 75.

Now that Deep Dasgupta has solved India's wicketkeeping problem and stiffened their lower order, there is no department of batting, bowling and fielding in which England can be confident of having the edge, with the arguable exception of slip-catching if Martyn Ball squeezes past Richard Dawson and lines up next to Graham Thorpe and Andy Flintoff.

There is more to cricket, however, than batting, bowling and fielding. And in one vital area of the game, England will have a clear edge: captaincy. Sourav Ganguly has a fiendishly difficult job and, except for one great result against Australia - engineered by two of the all-time great individual performances - he has not done it very well.

Tactically, he is a tinkerer rather than a thinker, all too inlined to put fielders where the ball has just gone. Managerially, his ability to irritate opponents and referees with a graceless remark extends to his own team-mates. This week he was quoted as dismissing his entire seam attack; today he denied saying it - but then half-said it anyway, when he let slip that the seamers "looked all right in the nets, but the match is always different". It was if he wanted us to know from the start that it's not his fault if India lose. He is one bad result away from the sack.

That is a predicament most England captains know all about - but not Nasser Hussain. His seat is a hot one too - but hot in England and hot in India are two different things. Hussain is sitting more comfortably than any England captain since Mike Brearley in 1981. He is a good diplomat, a sharp strategist, a patient manager and a strong character. Last winter, even when his own form had gone to pieces, he remained outward-looking enough to see and exploit the pressures that Moin Khan and Sanath Jayasuriya were under from their home crowds and media. Under Nasser, England almost have away advantage.

But it is one thing to snaffle a series in Pakistan with Gough taking wickets and Atherton making runs, and quite another to capture India, one of the game's great natural fortresses, with a team that has the front legs of a thoroughbred and the hind legs of a donkey. Hussain will have to make Atherton's runs himself, then go out and stand at mid-off and coax Matthew Hoggard into becoming the new Gough, or at least a second Neil Foster, then switch to slip, and conjure up some wickets from Richard Dawson, who may be promising but was outclassed against Surrey in September. England expects every player to pull his weight, but from Nasser they need nothing less than a tour de force.

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Tim de Lisle is editor of Wisden.com and former editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly magazine.

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