Tuesday, November 20, 2001 As sunset falls in Hyderabad, the call of the muezzin floats over the city. This is a place where Hindu meets Muslim, where half the women who sit on the back of the thousand motorbikes wear bright saris, the others, enveloped in black, are veiled from prying eyes. And cosseted away in the luxurious England hotel, Richard Dawson is living in a very different world from the one he inhabited 12 months ago.

Then he was a scruffy student living in a house with 17 other blokes, pondering whether his future lay in cricket or teaching. By the end of August, after a successful half-season when he took 30 wickets at 33 for Yorkshire, he was hoping he might get sent to the Academy in Adelaide. But his bouncy offbreaks had caught the eye of David Graveney and before he knew it had been fast-passaged to India. Then, in the first match of the tour against the MCA President's XI, he was the one bowler to emerge with any credit. In less than two weeks' time, Dawson could well find himself blinking back his contact lenses, removing his cap and strolling in to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar at Mohali - assuming Mike Denness lets Tendulkar take the field.

He is slightly less overwhelmed by this than you might think. His coach at Yorkshire, Wayne Clark, predicts in the new Wisden Cricket Monthly that Dawson will one day captain England, and there is a touch of Athertonitis in the way he talks to the media pack: arms folded defensively in front of him, slowly and quietly spoken, intelligent, wily, questioning. Yes the heat is hard, no I'm not Saqlain Mushtaq, no I don't consider myself the man in possession of the No. 1 spin spot.

Dawson's first over in England colours was a maiden, and he ended up taking a respectable two-for, making off with the official water-filter for Bowler of the Match, and winning glowing praise from the assistant coach, Graham Dilley, for a debut to be proud of. But he admitted that the transition from Headingley to Mumbai wasn't entirely without glitches. "It was very tiring, especially in that last hour. It was all right in the morning session, purely because I got a bowl and there was a bit of adrenalin, but after that it got a bit warmer and it hits you - hits you hard. I just hit a stone wall, it was basically like nothing I've played in before."

The opposition batting - dashing attack from Wasim Jaffer and a firecracker of an innings from Vinod Kambli - was also a bit of a culture shock. Where county cricketers play spin in lead wellies, the Indians like to dance. "I have only played a few games but I haven't played against too many players like that. They are more wristy and come at you, whereas in England you might be able to get men around the bat.

"It's more a defensive attacking mode [of bowling] instead of just plain out attacking. I was concentrating on keeping the runs down, you have to, especially when they're scoring so freely. You have to stop the runs and attack that way rather than with men around the bat."

Dawson is aware of the slow, painful death of the traditional offspinner at Test level and recognises that you have to have a little bit extra. "I've been trying to work on lots of things - you've got to have something different, it could be a topspinner, could be a good arm ball. But you have to work on your own different thing - you can't copy players like Saqlain Mushtaq or Muralitharan because you're not going to get anywhere near them."

But if realistic about his skills, he is enthusiastic about his situation: an unknown novice who will have the Indian top-order licking their lips, but who will be remembered only if he does unexpectedly well. "This is a win-win situation and I've got everything to gain rather than everything to lose."

Tanya Aldred is assistant editor of Wisden.com and our reporter on England's tour of India.

More from Tanya Aldred
A keeper ready for his greatest challenge
Latest name on the teamsheet: Olive of Mayfair

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd