Nasser Hussain is a Leeds United supporter, so it has been no surprise in India to find him constantly slipping into the David O'Leary routine about a young and naive side who have learned an awful lot in a very short time.

Hussain's homilies are rather more legitimate - by about £90 million sterling at current estimates - so, as England prepare for the final Test in Bangalore tomorrow, 1-0 down and not best equipped to rescue the series at the last, it is perfectly proper to concede that whatever fate befalls them, England's young players have at least had a wonderful grounding.

Or have they? Three back-to-back Tests in India might have extended the likes of James Foster and Richard Dawson so much in a cricketing sense that they have learned more in the past six weeks than the last six years, but in terms of a broader education, they have discovered nothing at all.

Welcome to the brave new world of the ICC's World Test Championship: two-dimensional touring, where itineraries are crammed tight to extract maximum revenue in the shortest time, cricket is the be all and end all, and everything else is deemed superfluous.

England tours to India used to be part travelogue, part cricket, where a player's state of mind was not solely influenced by whether he could read Anil Kumble's googly or make the old ball reverse swing (the answer to both those questions, incidentally, is "no"), but by a creeping sense of self that is the essence of travel.

But this England side have not seen the Taj Mahal, have been to Jaipur without visiting the Pink City and spent a week in Mohali with no time to go to Simla, the hilltop town in the foothills of the Himalayas from where, at the height of the British Empire, one-sixth of the world was governed. They also endured Ahmedabad without a thought of visiting Gandhi's ashram to discover what courage in the face of adversity was really all about.

Much is made of the broad ambitions of England's cricket academy, launched in Adelaide this winter, and soon to gain a permanent home in Loughborough. "Players are equipped not just for cricket, but for life," we are told. Then, once so equipped, cricket entirely takes over.

"What has that got to do with winning a Test?" is the obvious rejoinder. Perhaps more than is first imagined. Sense of self is not a bad asset to see you through the first solitary few overs when you can't lay a bat on Harbhajan Singh.

Hussain, thoroughly switched-on as ever, understands the demands of modern touring. "I think the days when Graham Gooch plays for England into his 40s are gone for ever," he said. "I don't think back-to-back Tests devalue Test cricket - we still get the special vibes on Test-match morning - but with all the games that are going on, careers will be much shorter, especially for fast bowlers."

Hussain was not in the best shape to be analytical. He is the latest England player to be debilitated by the bug that affected Mark Butcher and Michael Vaughan during the second Test, and which has pretty much gone through the entire squad.

He has been fortunate to suffer between Tests and expects to have recovered in time to lead England on a pitch expected to turn sharply, and where Kumble, on 299 Test wickets, and before his home crowd, can anticipate swelling his 18 wickets in the series.