MS Dhoni's No. 1 Test team has a dubious new name -- slow starters. After giving away the first game of an away series frequently, India now have become infamous for their poor starts. The England tour was no different when India lost at Lord’s.

Blame it on the BCCI for not scheduling enough warm-up games or the players for not adjusting to alien conditions quickly enough, India have handed away the early advantage during their tours.This means India has had to win back the initiative and come back from behind to become the No. 1 Test team. Though their fighting spirit is well acknowledged, it now threatens to dislodge them from their top Test spot.

It all started in December 2007 when India got into the rut of losing the first Test on foreign soil.Anil Kumble’s team went to Australia and was thrashed by a massive 337 runs in the opening Test in Melbourne, where India managed just 196 and 161 in their two essays. It was followed by the acrimonious Sydney Test, famous for the Bucknor blunders. But that defeat pushed India into a point of no return, though they played some seriously good cricket in Perth and Adelaide, but went down 2-1.

Next year in Sri Lanka, India were crushed by the home side in the first Test in conditions not particularly different from home. In a humiliating loss by an innings and 239 runs at the SSC in Colombo, India went 1-0 down in the series. They eventually lost the series 2-1.

On their next tour to the island, India made the same mistake when they were trounced in the first Test at Galle by 10 wickets despite a Virender Sehwag century. However, India managed to draw the second Test and win the third to level the series 1-1.

In their last series before the World Cup, India went to South Africa and right in the opening game, they were in for a rude shock. On the first day of the series, MS Dhoni's men were bowled out for 136 inside 38.4 overs at the Centurion. The home side won comfortably by an innings and 25 runs and India once again had to resurge to level the series.

There have been exceptions like in 2009 when India toured New Zealand, Sachin Tendulkar's masterful 160 helped India win the first Test, and eventually the series 1-0. The same happened in their last tour before England; Rahul Dravid's peerless hundred flattened the West Indies in the first Test at Kingston. India won the series 1-0.

But a lead in an away Test series has been rare for India, and when they have come, it has been due to individual brilliance.

Most experts have written off the Indian team after the defeat at Lord's, and to prove them the wrong the 'slow starters' have to hit top gear at Trent Bridge. Their ability to retaliate now has to compensate for their habit of conceding the early advantage.