While India whipped itself into a lather of indignation over a former England captain, the present England team were able to train for the second match of their tour in relative anonymity. Apart from the 700 khaki-clad policemen who hung around the stadium and outside the ground reading the newspaper, picking their nails and generally looking bored. Security for the three-day game against the Board President's XI will be unprecedented for a match in Hyderabad, with more than twice as many police as for any previous international, including two against Pakistan. There will be armed guards outside the stadium, plain-clothes officers inside, and combustibles and water bottles will be rejected at the gate.

But slowly, slowly, England are getting used to guns at every corner, and the heat of the sun on their skin. Far more of a challenge is the cricket.

Mark Ramprakash described the discipline needed to bat here. "You are facing predominantly spin, so your concentration has to be spot-on, especially if it is very hot as well - [the key is] having a game plan. I think with the spin and the sort of wickets you have here, scoring can take a bit of time and it can take patience. There may be sessions where things go fairly slowly, but I don't think you can come over here and smash up 350 in a day - it just isn't going to happen that way."

The imminent arrival of Andy Flintoff as England's 17th man has concentrated minds at England's hotel, the Taj Krishna. Even Ramprakash, who made a hundred against Australia in England's last Test and 58 on Monday, feels unsure of his place.

"There are seven good batsmen out here," he said, "and with Craig White playing so well ... we'll just have to see what the make-up of the side is. I don't feel particularly secure in the England team but I'm happy with the way I'm approaching my game, and if I get the opportunity I want to take the attitude I had during the summer, to play confidently, hit the bad balls."

Tomorrow England are expected to leave out one of the batsmen so they can try White at No. 6, play both their offspinners, Martyn Ball and Richard Dawson, and finally give a game to that perennial nearly man Richard Johnson, probably at the expense of Matthew Hoggard. That will leave Usman Afzaal and Warren Hegg as the only members of the original 16 not to have had a game.

The wicket at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium should be batsman-friendly like Mumbai, though the outfield could prove a quagmire for fielders - clods of transplanted grass sit there selfconsciously, waiting to trip the unwary ankle.

Also lying in wait are the Board President's XI, simmering with players on the verge of the Indian side. They will be led by Jacob Martin, a Baroda batsman who has played one-day internationals but who is reckoned by the sages to have a head for Tests.The side also includes Wasim Jaffer, who rattled up 99 against England on Sunday, and Sarandeep Singh, an offspinner who took six wickets on his Test debut against Zimbabwe a year ago but hasn't played since thanks to Harbhajan Singh, who leapfrogged him during the Australian series.

England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Mark Butcher, 3 Nasser Hussain (capt), 4 Graham Thorpe, 5 Mark Ramprakash, 6 Craig White, 7 Jamie Foster (wk), 8 Martyn Ball, 9 Richard Johnson, 10 Richard Dawson, 11 Jimmy Ormond.

Board President's XI (from) Wasim Jaffer, S Sriram, Jacob Martin (capt), Dinesh Mongia, Rohan Gavaskar, Sanjay Bangar, Dinesh Mongia, Pankaj Dharmani, Rakesh Patel, R Druv, Irfan Pathan, Murali Kartik, Sarandeep Singh, Surendar Singh.

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, is covering the whole tour for Wisden.com.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd