India v England: Haseeb Hameed debut excites Jonathan Agnew

Haseeb Hameed and Alastair Cook added 180 for the first wicket in England's second innings

England's drawn first Test with India in Rajkot may turn into an "I was there" moment.

Just as we look back to Nagpur in 2006, when Alastair Cook made a century on his debut, so too we might reflect on this in some years to come as the first time we saw Haseeb Hameed.

The 19-year-old, only the second teenager to make his debut for England since 1949, played beautifully for his 82 in the second innings.

Some are saying we should not build him up too soon, or put too much pressure on his shoulders, but you cannot ignore the fact he can bat. He has enormous potential, and whether he succeeds or fails is now entirely up to him.

Naturally, he will have disappointments along the way and he will have to deal with them because they are part of international sport.

• Read the report from England's drawn first Test

• Listen to Test Match Special's chat with the Hameed family

However, in terms of the four-year search for an opener to partner Cook that England have been on since Andrew Strauss retired in 2012, Hameed looks to be far and away the best of the 10 candidates we have seen.

The Lancashire teenager has a really good technique. He remains side on, he leaves studiously, has very good footwork and looks to have excellent judgement. Put simply, he looks like an opening batsman.

As an old fast bowler, I look for holes in a batsman's method. For example, when it comes to Alex Hales, the man who opened with Cook for much of 2016, you could see he was a candidate to be caught at second slip. So it proved.

With Hameed, there are no such obvious flaws. It looks like he is going be good enough to score a lot of runs for England.

Before this series began, there were two main areas of concern for England. Would they get enough runs? Would their spinners be good enough to trouble India's batsmen?

In this first Test, on top of Hameed's emergence, four England batsmen made centuries, while England's slow bowlers more than matched their Indian counterparts.

Captain Cook, with the benefit of three spinning options, used them in much shorter spells. Moeen Ali in particular seems to operate better in those circumstances.

On top of that, Adil Rashid put in his best performance in a Test, picking up seven wickets.

Adil Rashid's match figures of 7-178 are his best return in a Test

The Yorkshire leg-spinner spun the ball hard and used his very good googly, one which batsmen find difficult to read.

While England were, at times, outstanding, India were well below par. They dropped three catches in the first half-an-hour of the match, their fielding in general was sloppy and their attempt to save the game on the final afternoon was rather eccentric.

People might say they were complacent, but that does not disguise the fact they were four wickets away from being embarrassed.

They have to go away and think between now and the beginning of the second Test on Thursday, when I'm sure any complacency will be rubbed out. If that is the case, England can expect a hard contest in Visakhapatnam.

That venue, on the east coast, is likely to produce a pitch that is much more awkward for England.

Commentators and former India players I have been talking to suggest it could be a really tricky, spinning pitch. If that is the case, it is every man for himself. You do what you have to do to cling on.

Having said that, England must not panic or be put off. They should rely on the basics, know that every run is critical. The bowlers will have to keep it tight, the fielders will have to grab every half chance that comes their way and the batsmen will have to give India nothing at all.

This surface in Rajkot was decent and, for a large proportion of the match, did not provide great assistance to the bowlers.

In those conditions, England showed that they can compete. It might just provide India with the urgency to produce something England are not quite so comfortable with.

Jonathan Agnew was talking to BBC Sport's Stephan Shemilt