With the uncapped pair of Richard Johnson and Martyn Ball being called up to replace Andy Caddick and Robert Croft (71 caps and 230 wickets between them), England's attack in India is likely to be their most inexperienced at Test level for some time. The squad share 84 wickets (Anil Kumble alone, with 276, has three times as many) and the seven main bowlers have only 32 caps between them. And most of those wickets (64 out of the 84) were taken by Giles and White, neither of whom have has been passed fit to tour. You can't win anything with kids, so they say, but it hasn't been all doom and gloom when England have fielded inexperienced attacks in the past. Here we recall five of their greener line-ups.

Figures in brackets show records at start of each series

1964-65 v South Africa
John Price (6 caps, 18 wickets)
Ian Thomson (uncapped)
Ken Palmer (uncapped)

A run of 12 matches without a win led England to revamp their seam attack for the trip to South Africa in 1964-65, but it was their experienced spinners (Fred Titmus and David Allen) who bowled them to victory in the first Test at Durban. In fact the seamers didn't have the best tour - John Price, Ian Thomson (aged 35) and Ken Palmer, who was coaching in South Africa and made his debut in the last match because of injuries, took 18 wickets between them in five Tests, and at Port Elizabeth, Geoff Boycott of all people came on first change (and dismissed Eddie Barlow). But the impotence of their seamers didn't stop England taking the series 1-0, with a top six that included Boycott, Ted Dexter and Ken Barrington comfortably preserving their lead. Victory wasn't enough to save Thomson or Palmer though - they weren't picked again after this tour, although Palmer went on to become a Test umpire.

1983-84 v Pakistan
Nick Cook (3 caps, 21 wickets)
Vic Marks (3 caps, 7 wickets)

Their seam attack of Bob Willis, Ian Botham, Neil Foster and Norman Cowans had been around the block, but in Pakistan the microscope was always going to be on England's spinners, and they plumped for Nick Cook and Vic Marks, who had only six caps between them before the series, ahead of Phil Edmonds (John Emburey was still banned for his part in the 1981-82 rebel tour to South Africa). Edmonds lost his place the previous summer when he ricked his back getting out of his car, and with Cook an immediate success - he bowled England to victory over New Zealand at Lord's on his debut - Edmonds could not get back in. Cook's fine start continued in the first Test at Karachi, where he took 11 for 83. But in a match where all the other spinners shared 25 wickets for 289 runs, it was the toothless performance of Marks (1 for 63) that was the difference between victory and a three-wicket defeat. There was no way back from there - two draws gave Pakistan their first series win over England - and Marks did not play at Test level again after taking 4 for 260 in the series, even though he finished up with three consecutive half-centuries, the only ones he made in Tests.

1989-90 v West Indies
Devon Malcolm (1 cap, 1 wicket)
Gladstone Small (6 caps, 24 wickets)
Angus Fraser (3 caps, 9 wickets)
David Capel (11 caps, 12 wickets)

Stripped of a number of bowlers by Mike Gatting's rebel tour and with nowhere to go after an Ashes pasting, England promised to fight fire with fire in the West Indies. The fire actually amounted to Devon Malcolm and Ricky Ellcock, who did his back and hardly played on the tour (or indeed ever again). But Malcolm, bereft of the Clark Kent spectacles he sported on debut the previous summer, was a revelation. He improved his best bowling in the first four innings of the series, memorably castling Viv Richards in the defining moment of the stunning victory in Jamaica, and taking three top-order wickets in four balls at Port-of-Spain. Small bowled with the sort of vim and vigour that makes you wonder why he played his last Test only a year later, Fraser was just Fraser, setting the tone for much of what followed with his 5 for 28 on the first day of a series that even optimists expected England to lose 5-0, and even the usually anodyne Capel chipped in with some important wickets. Had they all played throughout the series, England might well have pulled off an astonishing victory, but Fraser missed the last two Tests and Malcolm never really got over a calculated assault from Richards in Barbados. The four of them only ever played together in two Tests - a win and a draw in the Caribbean is not a bad tale to tell the grandchildren.

1993 v Australia
Martin McCague (uncapped)
Martin Bicknell (uncapped)
Andy Caddick (uncapped)
Peter Such (uncapped)
Mark Ilott (uncapped)

Two heavy defeats in the first two Ashes Tests of 1993 persuaded the England selectors to start again, and they went to Trent Bridge with an attack of Martin McCague and Mark Ilott (the first pair of debutants to take the new ball for England since Alan Brown and "Butch" White at Lahore in 1961-62) and Andy Caddick and Peter Such (who had both made their debuts in the first Test), having finally lost patience with Chris Lewis and Phil Tufnell. For a while the ploy worked, with the exuberance and fearlessness of youth threatening to get England back in the series. In a match that was also the debut of Mark Lathwell and Graham Thorpe, and Nasser Hussain's first appearance for three years, McCague roughed the Aussies up in the first innings and Caddick almost bowled England to victory on the final day. Normal service was resumed at Headingley though - where another debutant, Martin Bicknell, came in for Such - with the battle-hardened Australian top six spanking England's fledgling attack to all parts. Of the five, only Caddick established himself at the top level. Ilott played only twice after that series, McCague once and Bicknell, somehow, not at all.

1995-96 v South Africa
Dominic Cork (5 caps, 26 wickets)
Peter Martin (3 caps, 5 wickets)
Mark Ilott (3 caps, 8 wickets)
Richard Illingworth (6 caps, 10 wickets)

After Mike Atherton's Johannesburg heroics, England went horses-for-courses for the next match at Durban, dumping Darren Gough, Devon Malcolm and Angus Fraser in favour of the swing of Peter Martin and Mark Ilott and the wily spin of Richard Illingworth. South Africa got themselves in a terrible muddle, their struggles best epitomised by Hansie Cronje's messy attempt to slog Illingworth over the top. And when Ilott took three in six balls, South Africa were 153 for 9. Then Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald drove everyone to distraction with a last-wicket partnership of 72, and rain ruined the match before England's new attack got another go. In the next Test at Port Elizabeth they found an atmosphere and surface less conducive as South Africa piled up over 400. Illingworth and Ilott didn't play again and despite an outstanding tour, Martin only gained two more caps.

Rob Smyth is on the staff at Wisden.com.

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