A world of pain - England's slide from No. 1 has gathered pace and they have serious questions ahead of the second Test

"Happiness is but a mere episode in the general drama of pain."

Thomas Hardy

Certainly it seemed that way for England as they left Ahmedabad. While Alastair Cook and Matt Priorprovided the brief interlude of joy, the rest of this Test simply revived painful memories of the 3-0 loss they suffered against Pakistan in the UAE at the start of the year. In the end, in this game, the damage inflicted by the huge first-innings deficit was too deep to repair.

India deserved this victory. While winning the toss was a substantial advantage, India were on the wrong end of more than their share of umpiring errors and, more importantly, looked the better-functioning team. While the majority of the XI contributed to India's success, England were reliant on three plucky individuals. They require far wider contributions if they are to challenge in this series.

It seems a long time since England were rated the best Test team in the world, too. That period, that happy episode amid the pain, now looks to have been a false dawn. England can have no pretence of supremacy while they are so poor in almost half the Test-playing world. And, having lost five of the six Tests they have played in Asian conditions this year, there can be no hogwash about enduring 'one bad game'. A pattern has not so much emerged as been tattooed on England's forehead.

In some ways, this was a worse performance than those in the UAE. At least against Pakistan, England bowled and fielded well. Here the bowlers lacked control - James Anderson and Graeme Swann excepted - the batsmen lacked the requisite skill, be it mental or physical, and the fielding was below the high standards this team sets itself.

In the longer term, it will take a more open-minded approach to pitches and bowling actions in the county game to resolve England's issues against spin and Asian pitches. It will take an acceptance that those who moan about turning pitches and mystery spinners in county cricket are holding the English game back. The homogenisation of conditions and coaching and the officious work-permit criteria that render it ever more difficult to bring foreign players into England will, in the end, only foster mediocrity.

In the shorter term, England face some difficult decisions. This series in not over. The last time England won here, in 1984-85, they came from one down after the first Test. Stranger things have happened than England winning from behind, though not all that many.

There is hope. Not only have Cook and Prior shown that it is possible to prosper in such conditions, but other batsmen may take grim comfort in reflecting that there was a self-inflicted element to many of their dismissals. Unlike the series in the UAE, where several of them had little clue how to play Saeed Ajmal, here they buckled under the pressure of good, controlled but absolutely not unplayable bowling. Had they premeditated less and played straight more, they would have prospered. They can do better.

A lack of confidence was one of the issues with the bat. The scars of the UAE were clear in the way that Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen over-compensated for their nervousness by gambling with aggressive, premeditated shots. Both players are better than that.

It is almost impossible for England to select a well-balanced team going into Mumbai from the squad they have at their disposal. If they go with an attack of two seamers and two spinners, they could have a tail of Swann, Anderson, Steven Finn and Monty Panesar at No. 11. Bearing in mind their batsmen's struggles in Ahmedabad, that is not ideal.

Samit Patel was unfortunate with the bat - he received a dubious decision in both innings - so, while his bowling was undistinguished, judgement should be reserved. He is no second spinner, though. Not only does he lack bite, he lacks the control required at this level.

Tim Bresnan will surely struggle to keep his place. Bresnan is a worthy cricketer but, since his elbow operation a year ago and through no fault of his own, he has lacked the nip he once possessed. Whatever India fear, it is not an 80 mph seamer. He may have played his last Test.

Stuart Broad will also come under pressure. Broad is, clearly, an immensely talented cricketer and there have been times, with bat and ball, when he has looked capable of greatness. But, since an excellent few months leading up to the South Africa series, he has lacked pace with the ball and form with the bat. He is the team's vice-captain and, aged 26, still has a bright future, but he is currently living on memories. He will surely come again but for now Finn, with his pace and hostility, is impossible to ignore.

England rose to No. 1 largely on the back of hostile bowling and late swing; you do not gain either of those by bowling at fast-medium. The lack of pace in England's attack is a recurring theme of recent times and it would help if the bowlers, or the England bowling coach, David Saker, could rediscover their nip. Even Anderson, for so long a beacon in this side, is looking worryingly ineffective at present.

Broad could retain his place even if, as expected, England bring in Panesar, Finn and Jonny Bairstow for Bell, who has returned to England on paternity leave. The pitch at Mumbai is expected to offer more bounce - India were not overwhelmed by the lack of pace and bounce in Ahmedabad - so it may yet be that England consider a five man attack including three seamers and Monty Panesar as second spinner. For all the outcry against Panesar's exclusion here, there is little evidence from the warm-up games, his record against India or India's record in general that Panesar would have made a tangible difference. He would, however, offer control.

Eoin Morgan, by virtue of being a left-hander, may be considered, too, though Bairstow's excellence in his last Test, against South Africa, should not be forgotten. Neither man has looked at their best against spin.

It is no disgrace to lose and, in these conditions, England may have simply come up against a side that was too good for them. The nagging doubt persists, though, that they failed to do themselves justice. They have made life enormously difficult for themselves in the rest of the series.

Herath delivers crushing win for Sri Lanka

A day that began on even terms finished being one-sided. New Zealand's fast-bowling stocks may be promising but their batting continued to be a serious worry and it let them down again, on a day when they had the rare chance of pressing ahead and aiming for a win. They slumped to a fifth straight Test defeat in conditions far less lethal than their scoreline suggested. The batsmen were largely victims of their own approach and lack of confidence against spin on a slow and low pitch.

Rangana Herath was again the wrecker-in-chief, continuing his incredible run in Galle, and finished with 11 wickets in the match. Both his hauls of ten wickets or more in a Test have come in Galle, where he's picked up 46 in eight games at 20.30, including five of his 12 five-fors. His achievement wasn't a surprise, certainly not against an opposition whose performances against spin have been woeful in the recent past. In their last five Tests, all of them defeats, they've lost 62 wickets out of 100 to spin. Only one of those games went into the fifth day.

Sri Lanka were disciplined and cut down drastically on the bad deliveries they had delivered on the opening day when Brendon McCullum and Daniel Flynn had managed to find some release after the loss of early wickets. There was hardly any swing or movement for the seamers, and the ball never carried to slip, though the spinners found a fair amount of turn. The overall result of their tight lines and variations in pace and length was a stagnating run-flow and an eventual collapse.

At a time when New Zealand would have been aiming to begin solidly and lay a platform for a challenging lead, they were hit by a Nuwan Kulasekara double-strike. Martin Guptill was dismissed in a manner similar to the first innings, when he played down the wrong line, only this time he was bowled. Kane Williamson was a touch unfortunate to be caught down the leg side, when he tried to glide one down to fine leg and New Zealand were reduced to 46 for 3.

Ross Taylor square-drove the seamers for two fours and looked comfortable against Herath while defending, and he and Flynn appeared to infuse a bit of urgency to an innings that badly needed a fillip. But there remained some uncertainty against the spinners. Herath got one to spit away and bounce past Taylor's bat, and that may have played on the batsman's mind when, shortly after, he misread an arm ball from Herath to be trapped in front.

James Franklin had spent some time on the pitch before the start of play, standing on the crease and scanning the areas he could score off. He appeared to come out with a plan, as he stepped out to Herath, often to try working him on to the leg side. That prompted Mahela Jayawardene to employ two midwickets for him, but Franklin was undeterred. It did not pay, as he was beaten in flight to be stumped, albeit unconvincingly, by Prasanna Jayawardene - he failed to collect but the ball ricocheted off his chest and dislodged the bails.

Flynn was the most confident and enterprising of New Zealand's batsmen today, picking out midwicket as a favoured scoring area, fetching deliveries from outside off, piercing the field on either side of the wicket and trying his utmost to rotate the strike. But he was taken by surprise as Herath turned one in sharply and bowled him through the gate. When Doug Bracewell failed to pick an arm ball next ball, the end was nigh for New Zealand. The desperation to stretch the lead and give themselves something to bowl at was evident when Tim Southee and Trent Boult went over the top and struck three sixes between them, but they too succumbed to spin, only managing to extend the advantage to 92 runs.

An early burst from the seamers was New Zealand's only hope - somewhat dented from the outset by Tim Southee's absence due to a niggle - but a presumably nervous Sri Lanka opening partnership, on a pair, ensured the chase was smooth. Tharanga Paranavitana had just one half-century in his previous 11 innings and would have been under pressure. He was subdued to begin with but eventually got going, using his feet well against Jeetan Patel to launch him for six, before smashing Bracewell over point towards the close. He stayed through to the end of the chase, but it'll be interesting to see how the combination changes should Tillakaratne Dilshan return to the line-up in the next Test.

Paranavitana could face competition for that opening slot from the debutant Dimuth Karunaratne, who did his own prospects no harm with an attractive half-century. He was edgy at the start but looked strong on the back foot, punching boundaries through midwicket and extra cover and even pulling in the direction of square leg. He also cashed in on some freebies on leg stump and eased to a maiden fifty.

The day was a fulfilling one for Sri Lanka, and the hope of a closely-fought game raised by New Zealand proved deceptive in the end.

Ojha, Pujara secure crushing India win

India went 1-0 up in the Test series with three to play when they rolled over England on the final day at Motera, taking the last five wickets by lunch to leave themselves needing only 77 for victory and then gambolling to victory with almost indecent haste in less than 16 overs. India can congratulate themselves on engineering a perfect victory; England must embrace change.

India had to labour long and hard to bowl out England a second time, spending ten-and-a-quarter hours in the field, but when they batted again, it was a breeze as Virender Sehwag and Cheteshwar Pujara unveiled a succession of unrestrained attacking shots that made a mockery of England's painstaking attempts to save the Test.

Sehwag, a batsman who knows no fear, and who clearly could not care less whether he added a bit of red ink to a formidable Test record, was caught on the boundary trying to hit Graeme Swann for six, but Pujara, whose sterling double hundred in the first innings had been the cornerstone of India's victory, sallied on. He looks to be a formidable young player.

One sublime piece of footwork by Pujara, as he advanced to drive Swann through extra cover, was better than anything produced by England in the Test, a reminder that as staunchly as Cook and Prior resisted, they will need a more enlightened approach in the field and in their selection to force their way back into the series in the final three Tests.

On another still, blue morning in Ahmedabad, Pragyan Ojha claimed the key wickets of Cook and Prior as he found more turn than India's spinners had managed on the previous day. Ojha took 4 for 120, to finish with 9 for 165 in the match.

Cook had organised epic resistance after England had followed on, 330 behind, but India's resolve was reborn after a night's rest and when he was seventh out, beaten by sharp turn and low bounce, the game immediately looked up.

Matt Prior and Cook had joined forces in a sixth-wicket stand which had given England a 10-run lead overnight and stirred tentative hopes among their supporters that they might save the game.

But they added only 16 runs to their overnight score before Prior was out in the 10th over of the morning, pushing too early at a nondescript delivery from Ojha that presumably held on to the surface and offering a simple return catch. They had put on 157 runs in 61 overs.

Cook's innings spanned more than nine hours, one of the greatest rearguard innings ever produced by an England captain, but while it had led England from a sense of despair after their first-innings collapse it looked unlikely to spare them from defeat as, four overs after Prior, he too fell.

Broad's batting has become a liability, the belief that he offers extra depth to England's lower order resting on a reputation no longer backed up by statistics. He provided a second return catch of the morning, a wooden push at Umesh Yadav off the leading edge.

India's anxiety to force victory in a game they had dominated from the outset was evident. As Broad shadow-practised the shot and patted down some damage to the pitch, Ojha, his passions overflowing, sensed that he was trying to damage the surface for England's bowlers and gave him a send-off intense enough for the umpires to intervene to calm things down.

Prior had taken guard outside his crease to nullify the roughest areas and Swann took that to further extremes, standing a good yard beyond the line. India, apparently, were not impressed by the tactic, suspecting foul play and an attempt to make the surface disintegrate.

At eight down, with more than two sessions remaining, England's cause required not just blocking, but something extraordinary. Swann's ambitions were clear when he slog-swept Ojha for six, but a switch hit against R Ashwin had a more calamitous outcome as the ball was too full and his middle stump was flattened. Ashwin, who had taken his first wicket in his 43rd over, on a slow turner that had brought him little sustenance, must have been grateful.

Tim Bresnan, who was lectured by Aleem Dar, the umpire, for running on the pitch, followed in the next over, pushing a driveable ball from Zaheer Khan to short extra. India were almost home.