No better time than now!

MIND THE GAP Itrsquos something you hear with compelling regularity at tube stations in London The caution cry stays with you even when you leave the capital city for other destinations in the United KingdomThe mention of the gap also reminds one of the time that has lapsed between Indiarsquos last Test series win in England and the Pataudi Trophy that began in Nottingham yesterday Fourteen yearsThe English summer of 2007 was the last time an Indian team tasted Test serieswinning bubbly thereAlthough the best of sports psychologists believe there is no gain in looking back while approaching a challenge 14 years is a long time near incomprehensible too For quite a few times in those years India have been high on the rankings charts They certainly were the worldrsquos best team before England under Andrew Strauss whitewashed Mahendra Singh Dhonirsquos team 40 in 2011India have since improved with the red ball on the English greens and their wins at Lordrsquos in 2014 and Trent Bridge in 2018 prove that But those two series ended Englandrsquos way neverthelessThis wonrsquot ease the blow but herersquos how far behind 2007 is The Indian Premier League IPL was still one year away from its 2008 birth Rohit Sharma the premier oneday batsman in world cricket today had played only a couple of games Sachin Tendulkar was still six years away from his 2013 Test retirement Dhoni who quit Test cricket in 201415 was only in his second year in the traditional form of the game and current coach Ravi Shastri was back to full commentary duty after doing a oneoff stint as cricket manager in Bangladesh in 2007 And 14 years is how long it takes the average student to go from junior KG to senior collegeWhy has England dominated India on home turf for so long There is no single reason but in the main they have got better in all formats Look how they picked themselves up from a torrid 2015 World Cup to champions in 2019 Some of their pace bowling stocks have turned blue chip and importantly which is often forgotten in talk of needing 20 wickets to win a Test their batsmen have put up big runs on the boardThe focus is now on Trent Bridge I covered the 2007 and 2011 Tests there The former ended in a memorable win for India and the latter a depressing defeatIn 2007 Zaheer Khan probably incensed by the fact that someone from the England team threw jellybeans on the turf when he walked in to bat on the third evening added a fifer to his fourwicket effort in the first innings and bowled India to victory The Test victory tasted extra sweet because this was the first triumph outside Asia after the World Cup flop show It was also a Test which led to a series triumphIndia had no business to escape defeat in the opening Test at Lordrsquos To bowl out a charged up opposition for 198 at Nottingham took some doing Then came the first innings total of 481 which didnrsquot include a single century Sachin Tendulkar topscored with 91Like in 2007 the second Test of the Pataudi Trophy was held in Nottingham where India lost by 319 runs despite bowling the hosts out for 221 on Day One Stuart Broad bagged a hattrick and England were never in serious trouble after that The win for the home side moved allrounderturnedjournalist Derek Pringle to write in the Daily Telegraph from Nottingham ldquoIt was a pounding delivered with the swaggering eacutelan of the two finest sides of the past 30 years the West Indies under Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards and Australia under Mark Taylor and Steve WaughrdquoItrsquos not easy to win a session leave alone a Test in England with the weather changing from cloudy to sunny and viceversa This is more than just confronting to overseas teamsBut when the sun shines batting looks so easy and there is applause from an appreciative audience for the ball passing the boundary ropes and the skill involved in getting it to reach thereRuns matter When England beat India 40 in 2011 three of their batsmen got double centuriesmdashKevin Pietersen 202 at Lordrsquos Alastair Cook 294 at Edgbaston and Ian Bell 235 at The Ovalmdashwhile all three Indian centuries came off the blade of Rahul Dravid 146 not out at The Oval being his highest for the series It must be said though that India were without their pace spearhead Zaheer Khan who suffered a hamstring injury on the first day of the Test series at Lordrsquos Indeed it left India rudderless The pace trio of James Anderson Broad and Tim Bresnan who operated together in three of the four Tests along with the offspin heroics of Graeme Swann contributed to a destructive force which led to some pundits calling it the bestever English attackThe current Indian team are in prime position to reverse the trend in their Test battles on English soil There seems to be a ring of vulnerability around Joe Rootrsquos team who are coping with injuryinduced absentees and the aftershocks of a Test series loss to New Zealand and of course a walloping in India a few months agoCome to think of it it is they who should MIND THE GAPmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper