Tour Match, New Road.
Worcestershire v India. No play on Wednesday due to rain.
After a heavy defeat to England in last week's first Test, India's frustration grew when the first day of their tour match against Worcestershire was ruined by rain.
The tourists had been looking to use the four-day fixture to play their batsmen back into form after the 170-run defeat at Lord's.
The top five in the batting order for that game, including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and skipper Sourav Ganguly, have all been included in the line-up.
But torrential overnight rain never relented and left umpires George Sharp and Richard Kettleborough with no option but to call off the opening day's play at 1245BST.
The weather forecast is also unsettled for the remainder of the week in what is the only game that the Indians have before the second Test begins at Trent Bridge on 8 August.
Captain Sourav Ganguly believes his bowlers must improve their discipline if India are to win the next Test match against England at Trent Bridge.
"It was a poor Test defeat," Ganguly admitted. "England dominated all five days of the match and deserved to win.
"Nasser (Hussain) won a good toss and although we had England struggling at 78 for 3, we did not bowl well enough to create pressure on the later batsmen."
After getting of to a bad start, England managed to amass 487 in their first innings at Lord's. India could realistically only bat for a draw thereafter. When the visitors crumbled to 221 all out in their first innings, defeat stared them in the face.
"Our bowling lacked discipline, as we did not bowl to a consistent line and length. This was the difference between the England bowlers and us," Ganguly told.
India cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar believes too much one-day cricket was to blame for his country's Test defeat against England.
India were beaten by 170 runs at Lord's on Monday, their much-vaunted batting line-up failing to get to grips with an England attack missing first-choice bowlers Andy Caddick and Darren Gough.
Gavaskar said India's batting flop was due to too many players being stuck in limited overs mode and said wickets were given away cheaply by batsmen.
"... the Indian batting was still in the one-day mind-set and that's what they have to change if they want to retrieve ground in this series," Gavaskar said.
"They were dismissed playing the extravagant shots that are so much a part of one-day cricket but have to be played with a certain amount of care in the longer version of the game."
England received some welcome respite from their injury woes with the news fast bowler Alex Tudor has recovered from shin splints.
Tudor was forced to sit out of the first Test against India after suffering the injury during England's NatWest Series final defeat by India.
He made his return for Surrey last weekend with a seven-over spell against Essex at Guildford in the Norwich Union League
And he is hopeful of making the starting line-up for the C&G Trophy semi-final against Yorkshire when the rain-hit match gets underway at Headingley on Thursday.
With several bowlers troubled by injury, Tudor's availability for next week's second Test is a fillip for England as they attempt to double their series lead.
England captain Nasser Hussain has praised Test debutant Simon Jones for combining accuracy with pace, but warns that a single performance is insufficient to prove a player's class.
"He had great belief in himself," said Hussain of Jones' performance at Lord's.
"That was one of the strongest batting lineups we've come up against and Jones impressed his team-mates with everything he did."
Hussain continued, "Most importantly he put the ball in the right areas, bowled people out. It was not just short and wide, running in to bowl at 90 miles per hour.
"People usually have one or the other (pace or accuracy). He seems to have both."
He is widely regarded as the world's best batsman but after another overseas Test defeat, India is beginning to consider the hitherto unthinkable - does Sachin Tendulkar choke when it matters most?
Tendulkar was bowled through the gate for 12 attempting an uppish drive against paceman Matthew Hoggard at Lord's on Sunday, just when India were hoping he could help them save the first Test.
The problem, experts and former players say, is that it wasn't a one-off.
"One more defeat on foreign soil. One more time when Sachin Tendulkar failed to produce a quality innings in adversity," said the Hindustan Times.
"Tendulkar's greatness as a complete batsman is on test. He is prolific but not decisive."
The 29-year-old said in an interview earlier this year that he was disappointed at not winning Test matches when the team had to chase challenging fourth-innings totals.
"I have been disappointed with myself... I have to learn to finish Tests," he said.
Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin, one of the 16 nominees for the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century award, has said the organisers of the awards function asked him not to come for the function held prior to the Lord's Test, though they were regularly in touch with him in connection with the award.
Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was recalled for a one-day international series against Bangladesh after being left out of the second Test.
Australia's oldest living Test cricketer, former captain Bill Brown, has used the occasion of his 90th birthday to say he dislikes the modern trend of sledging.
Gary Kirsten is like one of those old-fashioned boxers, who can take hundreds of punches and just keeps coming back for more.
South African cricket captain Shaun Pollock will not attend the last training camp of his team ahead of one of the longest and most gruelling seasons ever. The camp will begin in Centurion on Thursday.