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India coach Duncan Fletcher feel the wound to pacer Zaheer Khan cost India the opportunity of "having a very good day" in the opening Test against England at Lord's.
Khan was easily India's best bowler at Lord's on Thursday before he went to hospital for a scan on his left leg. He took both wickets as England reached 127/2 before rain ensured just over half the listed 90 overs were bowled on the first day.
"He showed he's almost certainly the bowler we miss the most," Fletcher said. "Probably, the others lacked experience. He going off was a big miss. From our point of view, I think maybe we would have been happy with three wickets. I think if he had stayed there and got three or four, we would have broken up having a very good day."
Before limping off the field halfway through the 42nd over, Khan proved penetrating and miserly, footage figures of 2-18.
He trapped Alastair Cook lbw in the morning session and then dupe England captain Andrew Strauss into a skin complaint pull that was caught by Ishant Sharma at fine leg shortly after lunch.
"He's almost certainly the one that could have got us three or four wickets, so he was quite a loss at that stage," Fletcher said.
India's other bowlers proved notably less threatening, however, and while Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh were perhaps unlucky not to claim wickets, Sharma was inconsistent and failed to pressurise batsmen.
Fletcher argues they still bowled rationally well.
"It was hard for our bowlers to get used to the swing," he said. "I still think we bowled pretty well, but they need to get their lines right."
England's Jonathan Trott lived dangerously on his way to 58 not out. Having been drop by Dravid at first slip off Harbhajan, he then edged a delivery from Khan between wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dravid.
He said: "I think they were two very hard chances," Fletcher said. "I think on another day one might have been taken, but they were very hard chances and we've seen that happen at Lord's on numerous occasions."
He also protected his players against suggestion they lacked intensity in the field.
"Not at all. I consideration those players were really up for the game," he said. "They wanted to play at Lord's and give it their best shot. Those players have just had three hard Test matches in the West Indies.
"It's not just a question of coming over here and getting used to the conditions. We've seen players play a whole Test series and move violently in the field," said Fletcher.
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