For almost all of the 20th century, it was one of Test cricket's unwritten, unspoken laws: just as Liverpool never lost a football match in which Ian Rush scored first, a team could not lose a three-Test series after winning the first match. Australia had gone down to WG Grace's England in such circumstances in 1888, but for the next 106 years it didn't happen at all. But then, after WG, came WJ - Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje, who led South Africa to victory from one-down at home to New Zealand in 1994-95. In the same winter Salim Malik did likewise as Pakistan recovered from a mauling in the first Test in Zimbabwe to take the series. Since then there have been four further instances: all have come in the subcontinent, and three of the four from close to the point of no return. How do they do it?

History suggests that one of two extremes is needed - either patient attrition, or the individual performance of a lifetime. This day and age, as shaped by Mark Taylor, has little time for draws, so recovering from 1-0 down is nowhere near as inconceivable as it used to be. England may be looking down the barrel, but all is not lost yet.

Pakistan 1 Sri Lanka 2, 1995-96

Though Sri Lanka had won their first overseas series against New Zealand the previous winter they went to Pakistan as serious underdogs, and everything was going according to the script when they were hammered by an innings at Peshawar. But Wasim Akram damaged his shoulder in the first innings of the second Test and could not bowl again in the series, and with Waqar Younis regaining fitness and Mushtaq Ahmed out of favour, Pakistan were emasculated. Aravinda de Silva, fresh from his annus mirabilis with Kent, ground them down with a seven-hour 105 and Sri Lanka squeezed home by 42 runs. The decider was similarly attritional - until Pakistan imploded, collapsing to 15 for 5 on the fourth evening in a manner that has subsequently raised a few eyebrows. A Sri Lankan victory - their first in a series against Pakistan - was a formality from there. They came from 1-0 down to win the one-dayers 2-1 as well. These were landmark victories for the Sri Lankans, who six months later won the World Cup in sensational style.

Sri Lanka 2 New Zealand 1, 1997-98

Two years later Sri Lanka again came from behind to win a three-match series, but as they were at home to a New Zealand side still regrouping under Stephen Fleming, this was less of a shock. In footballing parlance, New Zealand scored too early when they thumped Sri Lanka by 167 runs in the first Test. Fortress Galle - hosting a Test for the first time - put Sri Lanka back on track with an innings victory. Their spinners Kumar Dharmasena, Niroshan Bandaratilleke and Muttiah Muralitharan shared 18 wickets and Mahela Jayawardene gave the first indication of his abundant talent with a cracking 167 in a match where nobody else passed 53. The third Test followed a similar pattern - excluding the workhorse Pramodya Wickremasinghe, there were only three overs of Sri Lankan seam in the whole series - with a last-wicket stand of 71 between Romesh Kaluwitharana and Murali finishing the Kiwis off.

Sri Lanka 1 England 2, 2000-01

If England want a model on which to base a possible recovery in India, they need look no further than their victory in Sri Lanka last winter. Their first-Test defeat at Galle was even more comprehensive than the one at Mohali, but despite the handicap of losing all three tosses they came back to earn a momentous victory. They had old-fashioned team values to thank - everyone bar Graeme Hick chipped in, with only Graham Thorpe and Darren Gough earning gold stars - as well as the Sri Lankan capacity to blow up. They collapsed for just 81 on that delirious afternoon in Colombo, something nobody would have predicted before the series. Putting genuine pressure on the Indian middle-order, who are as vulnerable under the fiercest scrutiny as they are imperious when on top, might produce a similar result.

India 2 Australia 1, 2000-01

Not too many precedents here for England. Whereas their victory in Sri Lanka was a team effort, India's concurrent revival against Australia, after they were trounced in the first Test and followed on 274 behind in the second, contained some of the richest performances in cricket history, led by VVS Laxman's imperial 281 and Harbhajan Singh's 32 wickets (no other Indian bowler managed more than 3). At Calcutta, when Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted throughout the fourth day, India become only the third side to win a Test after following on, and at Chennai they clinched the series with a nerve-jangling two-wicket win, the winning runs fittingly smitten by Harbhajan.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com

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