Graeme Swann will make his Test debut for England here tomorrow after what captain Kevin Pietersen described as a "heck of a difficult" selection meeting.

Off-break bowler Swann joins left-armer Monty Panesar in a spin partnership that Pietersen hopes can give India problems. But Tim Ambrose, who kept wicket when Pietersen first took charge in August, has been dropped and there is no place for in-form batsman Owais Shah.

Matt Prior, England's one-day keeper, will be behind the stumps, while the top order remains the same as the one that helped defeat South Africa at The Oval towards the end of last season.

"We want to concentrate solely on playing some good cricket now," insisted Pietersen, trying to draw a line under the security issues that have dominated the past fortnight.

Whether England can rise to the occasion against opponents who have been red hot in all forms of the game is the million dollar question. They have been worrying about matters other than cricket since leaving India 10 days ago and have had precious little preparation for this challenge.

For Swann, though, tomorrow will be the biggest day of his career.

The 29-year-old Notts player has made himself a useful member of the one-day squad but never hidden his desire to play Test cricket. Now comes his chance, with England having been influenced by the success enjoyed in India by Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza earlier this winter.

"Picking two spinners is a decision we've come to because we think with this pitch it gives us our best attacking option," said Pietersen. "Graeme has bowled fantastically leading up to the Test so a debut is well deserved.

"True, India are not bad players of spin but it doesn't matter how good a player of spin you are you still have to play well on the day - and as a debutant Graeme will be ready and right at them.

"He was ecstatic when I told him he was in the team. It's a huge moment to get your first Test cap and he was thrilled to bits."

Preferring Prior to Ambrose looked a fairly straightforward decision, even though the Sussex man seemed to lose confidence on both sides of the stumps while England were being beaten 5-0 in the one-day series. He ended up batting at No8, having started the campaign as an opener, but - potentially - he gives the team more depth in terms of run-making potential.

Shah, though, can feel desperately unlucky. He was the side's best batsman by a distance during the one-dayers yet is still behind Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood when it comes to the Tests.

Pietersen has been England captain for just 18 weeks but already he has experienced the good, the bad and the nightmarishly ugly sides of a job which some people still think may prove beyond him.

Beating South Africa in a 'dead rubber' Test and then trouncing them 4-0 in the NatWest series gave him a happy honeymoon. Losing the Stanford 20 million dollar match and then being whitewashed by India in last month's one-dayers brought him back to reality with a bump.

But it was the Mumbai terror attack which plunged 'KP' into a situation which he could never have envisaged yet it enabled him to show real leadership skills off the field as he kept his team together - back at home, then in Abu Dhabi and finally on their return to India.

Tomorrow, though, comes Pietersen's greatest cricketing challenge yet.