The following is an extract from Test Match Cricket: C4 and the ECB's official guide to the 1st Test between England and India at Lord's, available at the ground throughout the match.

The England captain’s job is 24/7/365 and Nasser Hussain is never off duty. As the busiest year of his cricket life hots up, he finds time to tell Paul Newman about his Ashes and World Cup aims – and the personal significance of a series against India.

How did the England captain celebrate after wrapping up the series win over Sri Lanka in June? He got into his Mercedes and drove alone through the night from Manchester to his home just outside Chelmsford, 200-plus miles away.

Rare time spent with wife Karen and his year-old son Jacob counts for more than the chance to unwind at a hotel before a good night’s sleep and return the next day.

As Graham Thorpe’s recent retirement from one-day cricket suggested, there’s only so long a man can live the full-stretch life of the modern international cricketer. Nasser Hussain is 34 now and time is running short for the most influential England captain since Mike Brearley.

This summer, he leads his country against India, the land of his father and of his own birth, with both his position and his form stronger than ever, but knowing that time marches on.

At one stage he was adamant. The World Cup in South Africa next March would be his last engagement as an England player. Now he is not so sure, his mind changed both by his own form with the bat but, more crucially, by England’s continued progress and his brilliant working relationship with coach Duncan Fletcher.

In one of those lucky twists of fate that can make a sportsman’s career, the ECB’s bringing together of Hussain and Fletcher – two total strangers with, on the surface, totally different characters – to run the England team has proved a masterstroke. The team are improving, despite last year’s Ashes disappointment, and Hussain is at the heart of the evolution.

“It’s good that we’re considered to have made progress,” says Hussain, who remembers vividly being booed on The Oval balcony at the conclusion of his first series in charge against New Zealand in 1999.

“I never dreamed I would still be in charge three years on. When I look back at the New Zealand series [a 2-1 defeat despite winning the first game] I realise now that we were at a pretty low ebb.

“We had no coach [Fletcher had to see out his contract at Glamorgan] and lots of confusion. But I am pretty satisfied with a lot of what’s happened since – even though I realise we’re a long way from the finished article.”

Hussain was born in Madras to an Indian father and an English mother, but he came to England when he was seven and is as English as his football counterpart David Beckham in everything he does, even down to his fondness for curry.

He scored his first Test century against India, at Edgbaston on his return to the side in 1996, and had the honour of leading England in India last winter. “It completed me as a Test player just as it would complete anyone. But because of the Indian side of me, it was particularly special,” he says.

“I really wasn’t sure if it would be very different before the start. Yes, I knew it would be special for my dad, but I wondered what the people would make of me and whether I would feel any different. But I did. The people were incredible. So nice. So respectful.

“They were seemingly so proud of the fact that I was part-Indian and was coming back as England captain. I can be pretty private and don’t like too much intrusion, but I relished meeting the people and tried to give as much to them as I could.”

Nasser was satisfied that England competed in India last winter – despite the 1-0 series defeat – but knows Sourav Ganguly’s side could easily prove as tough an obstacle as Australia. If England come through this four-Test examination then Hussain – with five series wins already to his credit as captain – can add another significant notch to his achievements.

24 Jul, 2002