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England flew into Bombay before taking on India Under-25s in Ahmedabad. England were given their first glimpse of Mohammad Azharuddin and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.

TB: We flew to Bombay, where the British deputy high commissioner, Percy Norris, threw a party for us. He was a splendid bloke. No one wanted to leave. We stayed until quite late.

The following morning Norris was shot dead on his way to work. The tour was plunged into crisis 24 hours before the first Test.

TB: I had a running argument with Richard Streeton, of The Times. He thought we should go home. But we felt that, if you thought you were going to be at risk on the cricket field, then you would never play anywhere. There is nothing to stop someone taking a pot shot at you at Lord’s or Bombay.

GF: A few hours after the killing we got on a bus and drove through the spot where he was killed. We had no security. That was a great move by the management. We got a message from Lord’s saying we were expected to stay in India. I thought b*****ks to that.

Matthew Engel (The Guardian): The England team were a much higher-profile target than Percy Norris and nobody knew if this was an attack on British interests. It was reckless to play that Test match and it was a decision taken by the lords in the Foreign Office.

Not surprisingly England were soundly beaten by eight wickets despite Mike Gatting’s long-awaited maiden Test hundred.

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan (India spin bowler): I was brought into the team because England were considered to be weak against leg spin. There was a bit of tragedy just before the series when one of the English ambassadors was killed. We wore black bands on our sleeves but continued anyway.

GF: We had some shocking umpiring. I remember Sivaramakrishnan had an appeal against me turned down. He burst into tears. Gavaskar made a big play of handing him a handkerchief. Next over he had another appeal against me. Surprise, surprise, I was given out. Tim Robinson had two bad shouts as well.

Graham Morris: The security had supposedly been increased. On the first day of the Test I walked in wearing my camera jacket, which had lots of pockets that could have held a bomb. Nobody checked me. I went up to the most senior security man I could find and said: “I’m from the IRA. Can you show me to the England dressing-room?” He took me right to the door.

On the previous tour to India, England had lost the first Test and were then faced with a series of flat pitches as India strengthened their hand. Gower feared the same again. He need not have worried. England levelled the series in Delhi.

TB: The Bhopal disaster had happened a few days before and that caused huge problems in India.