The English cricket team toured India during February, March and April 2006. The English cricket team was aspiring to maintain the form that took them to second place in the ICC Test Championship before their disastrous spell against Pakistan, and which helped win the 2005 Ashes series at home to Australia. This goal was substantially hindered by the usual stomach complaints which nearly always dog the English team in the opening weeks of Indian tours, and a recurrence of an injury to the captain Michael Vaughan; the swing bowler Simon Jones and the absence of Ashley Giles who missed the tour for an operation. As well as this, stand-in captain Marcus Trescothick flew home for "personal reasons", not wishing to divulge further, leaving Andrew Flintoff, who missed the birth of his son, to take on the title of skipper for the first time having to captain two maiden international cricketers on the English side: Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar. Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla and Munaf Patel made their debuts for the home team. Three Test matches and seven One Day Internationals were planned. One ODI (in Guwahati) was washed out because of rain. The Test series was drawn 1-1 while India won the ODI series 5-1. Schedule Squads Tour Matches Tour match v Cricket Club of India (18–20 February) England beat Cricket Club of India by 238 runs England 1st Innings 299 all out (89.3 overs) Cricket Club of India 1st Innings 251 all out (79.3 overs) England 2nd Innings 265 all out (61.5 overs) Cricket Club of India 2nd Innings 75 all out (26.2 overs) Tour match v President's XI (23–25 February) President's XI beat England by 8 wickets England 1st Innings 238 for 9 (62.2 overs) President's XI 1st Innings 348 for 8 (103.4 overs) England 2nd Innings 158 for 9 (65.0 overs) President's XI 2nd Innings 58 for 2 (17.0 overs) Note: Munaf Patel took two five-wicket hauls at a combined total of 10-91 for the President's XI and subsequently gained a Test match debut in the Second Test against England. Test series 1st Test The first test at Nagpur, despite being a draw, proved to be an intense game of cricket with positive performances from both sides. This was encouraging as the perception of the tour was that England would struggle, especially given the number of injuries they had suffered just before the series began. Both