England in India: Virat Kohli may be out but hosts still hold all of the cards
- Published
The series in India is England's first action in Tests since the drawn Ashes last summer
For India to lose Virat Kohli for the first two Tests of the series against England is obviously a big blow.
It is sad that a player of his stature will not be there and as with Harry Brook, who has also withdrawn for personal reasons, I hope everything is OK.
But for England's hopes in cold isolation, Kohli's absence is a tremendous boost.
It is not just Kohli the batsman - the scorer of almost 9,000 runs with the experience of 113 Tests - who India will miss, but also the man himself and his aggressive presence on the field.
He may not be captain any more but Kohli still rallies the players.
It is right that players now feel able to make the decisions Kohli and Brook have.
When I played back in the day, players were away for months and did not see their partners and families.
Children were being born and players would not see them for months.
If the mind of those players is not in the right place then they should not be there. In that respect, cricket has changed for the better.
Even without Kohli, England still face a very tough challenge over the next eight weeks.
The results speak for themselves. India have not lost home a series since Alastair Cook's England won there in 2012 and in that time have only lost three out of 46 Tests.
One of those defeats was inflicted by England last time in Chennai in 2021, when Joe Root's double century set up victory on a very flat pitch.
We all remember what happened next.
The pitches quickly changed to spinning surfaces and India won 3-1. When that happens conditions become very, very difficult for any visiting team.
It's for these reasons that England's two victories in India - in 2012 and the trip under David Gower in 1984-85 - stand out as two of their best in modern times.
I was part of the squad on that Gower tour and a lot of the success we had was down to good morale within the squad.
We had good camaraderie and it was a happy tour. That really is essential for when things get tough, like when we lost the first Test of the series as Cook's side did 28 years later.
We practised most days and played tour matches in between each Test match, something the modern teams do not have the luxury of. We didn't play much golf, unlike Ben Stokes' team.
Phil Edmonds, the former Middlesex and England left-arm spinner, was my room-mate. We would walk around the souks or bazaars and the locals would come flooding out to see Phil because they loved him as a tall charismatic Englishman.
We would go sightseeing - I remember a trip to the botanical gardens in Chandigarh - and that was because the squad made a real effort to embrace the local culture and enjoy it.
I have seen other tours where players get on the bus, curtains closed, earphones in, and they look like a group that would rather be anywhere else.
England lost their most recent series in India 3-1
You have to embrace it and above all enjoy playing.
To their credit, making Test cricket fun to play and be a part of has always been a theme of what Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have been up to.
They have clearly built a group that loves being together.
The thing with that pair is they are trying to build that team spirit away from the spotlight, like with the build-up to this series which has been in Abu Dhabi without any practice matches in Indian conditions.
Personally, I think England should have had one warm-up game in India at least because, and we always say it, no matter how hard you practise as a squad, nothing replicates a game in the middle.
For me it is as much about getting used to the environment as it is about feeling bat on ball.
When you go to India there is all of the noise and chatter around the bat, which can be relentless and confusing as a batsman.
There is the noise of the crowd and the silence when you take a wicket or hit a boundary. That can unnerve you as a touring player.
What Stokes and McCullum have done in opting against preparing for that is a gamble, no doubt.
But despite it I would be more disappointed in them if they come rushing down the pitch to Ravindra Jadeja, have a big swipe and get stumped.
In India, with the fast outfields, you can score quite quickly.
Kevin Pietersen's spectacular 186 in Mumbai in 2012 was incredible, but so too was Alastair Cook's 122 from 270 balls. Even Pietersen got himself in with 50 from his first 63 balls before he dominated.
The one positive from Brook's withdrawal is it takes away the difficult decision they would have had to make around their batting order.
His absence means wicketkeeper Ben Foakes can play with Jonny Bairstow in the side as a specialist batter.
It is after the top seven where things will start to get interesting.
Jack Leach will play and has a massive responsibility with three inexperienced spinners - 19-year-old Rehan Ahmed, 20-year-old Shoaib Bashir and 24-year-old Tom Hartley - the other options.
England's logic of punting for tall spinners who can fire the ball into a turning pitch makes sense but I still have little idea who they will pick.
If I was India I would not be creating pitches which spin massively again. That would only make the pitches a lottery when India's bowlers are good enough to do the job on their own.
Even without Kohli, who will be replaced by another excellent player in these conditions, India hold all of the cards for this series.
England's own decisions have given them the difficult challenge of being up to speed straight away when the series begins on Thursday morning.