India v England – as it happened | Rob Smyth and Andy Bull

Virender Sehwag's stunning 117 from 117 balls took India to 323 for four on a pitch that is already helping the spinners

Morning everyone. And how are you feeling today? A little light-headed? Just a touch giddy? A few butterflies in the stomach? There is nothing, nothing at all, quite like the first morning of the first day of the first Test of a new series. The old sage Pat Gibson, Chairman of the Cricket Writers' Club, once told me that he's unable to walk past a cricket ground when there's a game going on without feeling a little twinge of excitement in his gut, and that was why, even after all these years, he still loved the game and loved his job. Actually he was rather more eloquent than that, and quoted, I think, Arthur Hopcraft at me. I can't quite recall because I was three-quarters-cut at the time. You get my gist though, h'm? Days like today, for cricket tragics like us, are as good as they get. How else can I explain the fact that I'm here at work, all alone in the office, three hours before play is even due to start?

So where do we start? No really, where do we start? I haven't seen more than a single day's play in over a year, let alone done an over-by-over, and have almost entirely forgotten how these things work. What's more Bobby Smyth isn't even due into the office till 8am or thereabouts, so I'm all on my lonesome. I can't even kiss his wee balding head for luck.

I was about to embark on a long meandering ramble to while away these empty email-less hours, fully anticipating that at this hour of the night my inbox would be as barren as the sands at Weston-Super-Mare on a wet Wednesday. But, readers, it seems I underestimated you. Or at least I underestimated Josh Robinson, who opens up the correspondence for the winter with this loosener down the leg-side: "Evening Bull, evening everybody. I presume I'm not the only one who's almost childishly excited about the start of the first Test of the tour. So much so that I suspect I'd be awake even if I didn't have a stack of work to do in order to avoid missing deadlines by even more obscene amounts of time than will be the case. Anyway: an OBO up more than two hours before the start of play? It's going to be a long and strangely captivating night, isn't it?" Yes. Yes it is.

In fact I'm struggling to think of a series, outside of the Ashes, that I've looked forward to more. Somehow it seems all the more fascinating for being between two teams who are both so flawed, and have both been recently deposed from the top slot in the world rankings in such ignominious fashion. old instincts die hard, and all those years of success under Andy Flower and Andy Strauss haven't killed my pessimistic streak. So if you push me, I'll say that I'll be amazed if India don't win this series. They have, after all, guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds