The summer of 2011 — India had Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Zaheer and Dhoni, possibly their best ever line-up. Each of these stars had played enough international cricket at that stage and, more importantly, had played enough in England to foresee what was in store for them.


Skipper MS Dhoni (left) and coach Duncan Fletcher will have their task cut out in the five-Test series. Pic/Getty Images 

This was also the time India had just won the ODI World Cup, raising hopes of the beginning of a new era: an era of India's worldwide dominance, across all formats, or so we in India thought. That summer turned out to be the harshest ever with the first chance of shedding the 'poor tourists' tag been blown to pieces.