Steven Finn ruled out of England's first Test against India as Alastair Cook officially starts his job as captain Alastair Cook will officially start his job as England's new captain tomorrow. The task at hand is to defeat India in India, a feat last achieved by any opposition in a Test series eight years ago and by England 28 years ago. Not exactly easy but it is perfectly straightforward to deduce which side will start as favourites not only for the rubber but for the First Test here in Ahmedabad. India, so often hopeless away, have become virtually impregnable at home buttressed by spin and responding to fervent expectation. It was confirmed today that Steve Finn's thigh injury will keep him out of the match. England will need his sheer pace before the series is finished. Only if Cook had been invited to assume the captaincy at the start of an Ashes series could his challenge have been more daunting. "I feel a mixture of everything," said Cooke. Obviously, a bit excited about what's going to happen, a little bit nervous but the overwhelming emotion is that I am very proud to be leading England. Whatever happens over the next Test match or however long I'm lucky enough to be able to hold it, I hope I do a good job. Comparisons are bound to be made in the first five minutes with Andrew Strauss, his immediate predecessor. Strauss is perhaps the most respected England captain of the past 20 years not simply because of two Ashes triumphs but because of the manner in which he conducted himself in outrageously difficult circumstances. Cook was the obvious, if not necessarily the most natural successor. He had been groomed for the post for almost four years and it did not need an expert in rune reading to see what the intentions were when he led England in a two-match series in Bangladesh in early 2010. He said: "People ask, "what style of captain are you going to be?" It's quite hard to put into words. I'm just going to try to do the best job I can. It won't be any different to what I have been doing in the one-day team. You can't change who you are as a style of bloke and you have got to be authentic to who you are. If Cook follows the one-day template he should be enormously successful. Since he took charge of the team following the 2011 World Cup, he has reinvented himself as a limited-overs batsman and taken England to No1 in the ICC rankings. But an arduous month awaits. England will certainly face an ordeal by spin. In three warm-up matches, India made this intention clear by ensuring that the tourists were deprived of almost any spin bowling. That will now change. Spin and its kitchen sink will be thrown at England in the shape of the off-spinner with add-ons, Ravichandran Ashwin, and the left-arm spinner, Pragyan Ojha. They have taken 73 wickets between them in India's last five Tests. The tactic, always deployed in India but now certain to be more blatant than ever, is England's own fault since they were so hopelessly timid against slow bowling in the UAE earlier this year, when Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman of Pakistan tied them in knots and ensured a 3-0 series victory. England insist they have learned the value of patience and are adamant that they are ready for a war of attrition which will involve long periods of batting in which they are resolute and content for not much to happen. Cook said: "Everyone has had an opportunity to get used to conditions and we know how important the squad is. We've been really well prepared. We'd have liked to have faced more quality spinners out in the middle but we can't control that and we have had available some excellent spinners in the nets. Perhaps the outcome is not as pre-ordained as it seems. Apart from a drubbing in 1992, when they were truly awful, England have almost managed to hold their own. They drew 1-1 under Andrew Flintoff in the spring of 2006 and although they lost 1-0 in late 2008, only a glorious hundred from Sachin Tendulkar prevented them winning in Chennai. India look vulnerable. Their batting order is unfamiliar after the retirement of the greats Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Tendulkar may well be playing his last series and is not a cast iron certainty to make the end of it. And then there is Kevin Pietersen. Cook has made it clear he wanted him in his side because he wanted the best players. He said: "As a captain it's great to have a world-class batter back. The process, or whatever you want to call it, in my eyes has finished. We have had to draw a line under it and moved on. He has been brilliant and the lads have been brilliant. And now they will need some brilliance from his bat.