The big one: Hussain falls to Kumble

Not only did he refuse to become embroiled in the various crises which threatened to derail the tour before it had properly begun, but he maintained a dignified stance throughout.

Only once did he speak out, and that after peace had been assured, when he used his column in a national newspaper to criticise both sides in the Sahwag affair.

"The last few days have reminded me of the small boy who owns the only bat and ball, then gets a bad decision in a game and decides to take his bat and ball home with him," he wrote.

Can this really be the same Nasser Hussain who as a schoolboy once threw the mother of all tantrums on a number 11 team-mate for getting out when he was within sight of a century?

Besotted

The Indian media have been almost besotted by the Madras-born England captain with one journalist going a little too far by referring the "dashing" 33-year-old whose name, as it happens, is an Arabic derivation of "handsome".

But it is his mantra to the English media - "don't get carried away with the highs, and don't exaggerate the lows" - that rung loudest after the first day in Mohali.

At 200 for three, having been put in to bat on a supposedly seamer-friendly pitch, England - and Hussain in particular - were on a grand high.

And now for the low... Hussain, on 85 and batting with genuine fluency, prodded circumspectly forward to Anil Kumble: the ball struck pad, then bat, and looped into the hands of V.V.S Laxman at silly point.

Hussain punches runs through the leg-side

Before long it was all over - England 238 all out, with the last six wickets going down for 14 runs.

The time and manner of Hussain's dismissal were crucial to the outcome of the day.

Up to that point, Hussain had made a great show of attacking the Indian bowlers, especially the dangerous Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

The England batsmen waiting their turn to bat could only have been encouraged by the sight of their captain hitting 13 fours and, in one premeditated moment of complete supremacy over Singh, clearing the long-off boundary for six.

More importantly, the pokes and prods which have too often in the past have represented England's attempts to play spin were notably absent as Hussain and Marcus Trescothick put on 125 runs for the second wicket.

Until, that is, Kumble found his line and Hussain played possibly his first - and last - tentative shot.

Ramprakash, Flintoff, White, Foster, Dawson and Hoggard soon followed - all to the spinners and all but Flintoff to tame pokes.

Looking on, the Hussain of England would have burned with anger and regret; the Hussain of India would have glowed with nothing but pride.