There was some good news for England on Friday when Graham Thorpe committed to next month's Indian tour, but of the remaining five possible refuseniks, all bar Marcus Trescothick are bowlers. If Andy Caddick, Craig White, Robert Croft and Ashley Giles (100 caps and 281 wickets between them) pull out, the parched dustbowls of India could see the greenest England attack for years. With the majestic middle order of VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, India is the toughest tour of all for a bowler. There is usually nothing for the seamers (though Mohali, the venue for the first Test, traditionally does a bit), and while the pitches offer turn, Indian batsmen are peerless players of spin – just ask Muttiah Muralitharan (15 wickets at 48 in India), or Shane Warne (20 at 50). It would have been hard enough for England with their subcontinental-tried-and-tested attack of Darren Gough, Caddick, White, Giles and Croft. Losing Gough was unfortunate. Losing all five would surely be terminal.

If England were to replace Caddick with Alex Tudor, the logical choice, they could feasibly line up for the first Test with the following team: AN Opener, Mark Butcher, Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain, Thorpe, Mark Ramprakash, Alex Tudor, James Foster, Jimmy Ormond, Matthew Hoggard and Richard Dawson.

The four main bowlers would have six caps between them, with the whole team sharing only 33 Test wickets. If the new ball were to be given on seniority, Tudor (15 wickets) would be taking it with Butcher (7), not Hoggard (6).

It would be England's most inexperienced bowling line-up since, well, since the trip to Zimbabwe earlier this month. But what worked against a ragged Zimbabwe side in pyjamas is unlikely to be as fruitful against Tendulkar and friends on a Bangalore shirtfront. It's no use England's top six doing their job and getting 350 if India go and double it.

The last time England fielded such a green Test attack was against Australia in 1993, when Caddick (2 caps), Martin McCague (0), Mark Ilott (0) and Peter Such (2) took the field in the third Test at Trent Bridge. For the next match at Headingley, Such was replaced by another debutant, Martin Bicknell (who might finally have been in the frame now, were he not having an Achilles operation), and Australia duly scored 653 for 4.

England will probably balk at picking such an inexperienced line-up. A more likely scenario is that they will perform their usual trick of replacing an original selection (Dawson) with a replacement (Phil Tufnell). But then Tufnell hardly has happy memories of India. He went there in 1992-93 as the best left-arm spinner in the world but bowled so poorly in the warm-ups that he was left out of the first Test. When he did get in, he was spanked to all parts and didn't take a wicket for 50 overs. If the Indian middle order get stuck into him as they can, Tufnell might look back on his pummelling at The Oval against Australia last summer as a golden age.

Apart from Tufnell, experience is likely to be at a premium. Andrew Flintoff would be a shoo-in to replace White, even though Tudor or Dominic Cork (remember him?) represent better like-for-like replacements. A second replacement spinner would probably come from the raw trio of Chris Schofield, Jeremy Snape and Graeme Swann and if Tudor continues to be persona non grata, Caddick's replacement would probably be last summer's drinks-carrier Richard Johnson. Alan Mullally is an option, if only because he would keep it tighter than most. But whether he'd actually beat the bat, let alone take a wicket, is a moot point. Whichever way you look at it, England would be sending boys to do a job that has proved beyond most men in recent times.

Rob Smyth is on the staff at Wisden.com.

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