Steve Harmison's not so great comeback officially stalled here today and England's hopes of salvaging anything from their tour of India appear to heading the same way.

Welcomed back with open arms by captain Kevin Pietersen at The Oval four months ago, Harmison was axed from the final Test of the year to complete an unhappy few weeks. Dropped midway through last month's limited-over series, he is now back on the outside looking in instead of leading his country's Test attack.

England's supposed strike bowler will surely go to the Caribbean in January. But having merited just half a dozen overs in Chennai on Monday while Pietersen's men were losing the First Test by six wickets, it was no great surprise to see the infuriatingly inconsistent paceman make way for Stuart Broad this morning.

And while Harmison kicked his heels, a fit again Broad did his best to kick start a victory bid after missing the opening match of the series because of a hamstring injury.

The 22-year-old dismissed dashing right-hander Virender Sehwag with his sixth delivery after Pietersen had lost an important toss. But, despite several near things during a grey day which saw the action limited by bad light to just 72 overs, that was as good as it got for England.

With Gautam Gambhir making his second century at this ground in eight weeks following a big score against Australia, and Rahul Dravid grinding his way back into some sort of form, India reached 179 for one to put themselves in the box seat.

The visitors have not given up hope, of course, of squaring the series with coach Peter Moores pointing out that “with two quick wickets we will be right back in the hunt.” But if a dry, cracked pitch crumbles, as expected, then England may be hard pushed to prevent the hosts from adding a 2-0 scoreline to their 5-0 one-day whitewash.

Whatever the outcome, though, Harmison's role in the national side is once again open to debate following his demotion.

“It was quite a tough decision,” said Moores. “Nothing particularly against Steve. Stuart is developing quickly as a player and he did very well in the one-day series.

“He showed in that series he's got real aggression and he's a wicket-taker. It's early days for him in Test cricket but he's got good skill, he swings the new ball, he creates bounce and he is quite a thinking man's cricketer.”

Broad, despite his boy band looks, also bristles with intent on the field — and that is something not easy to say about Harmison much of the time.

“Steve was disappointed to be left out because he desperately wanted to play,” said Moores. “He had a big Test at The Oval (against South Africa on his comeback) and he's not bowled particularly badly over here. But as much as Steve has or hasn't done, we felt Stuart was a good option here.

“It doesn't mean Steve is not going to be England's premier strike bowler again or not play in the next Test.”

After the spirit-sapping experience of losing a Test in Chennai they thought was there for the taking, Pietersen's team needed just about everything to go for them today. Instead, only Broad's early strike — with Sehwag edging one that left him through to keeper Matt Prior with six runs on the board — went in their favour.

Broad and Jimmy Anderson did enough with the new ball to earn three or four wickets before the pitch flattened out, then Graeme Swann experienced the flip side of Test cricket. The off-spinner who captured two wickets in his first over last week was denied twice in quick succession here after defeating the otherwise immaculate Gambhir. India's left-handed opener edged Swann to the right of slip where Paul Collingwood reached but could not grab a difficult chance, then survived a good lbw shout.

By that stage, however, Gambhir was into the 70s and a partnership with Dravid had well and truly taken root.

By now the pitch was starting to look ominously flat. Andrew Flintoff joined and left the attack without reward, then spinners Monty Panesar and Swann were given a twirl.

India know well enough that Panesar is under pressure, having gone wicketless during Monday's run-chase. It was no real surprise, then, to see Gambhir go down the pitch on two occasions during the left-armer's first over — twice driving him for leg-side boundaries.

There was little prospect of the defence-minded Dravid, whose recent poor touch has seen his place in the side come under threat, adopting that approach but he did eventually
complete his first half-century in eight Test innings before congratulating Gambhir on a 214-ball hundred.

A day which had begun 20 minutes late because of bad light ended 45 minutes early for the same reason —by which time India's second wicket pair had added 173 undefeated runs.

Those two will dream tonight of adding plenty more.

But in the other camp, Harmison may be glad to see the back of 2008 while Owais Shah must wonder whether 2009 is going to be any better.

If Shah, a fine player of spin who was in prime form during the recent one-day series, cannot get a game in India then what chance does he have in the Caribbean after Christmas?