England to be inspired by one day form
England players have arrived for their tour of India less rich than they had hoped, but with a wealth of confidence in their own ability, captain Kevin Pietersen said Friday.
England had the most unusual of preparations for this tour, which comprises seven one-day internationals and two Tests, having participation in the Stanford Super Series, an ad-hoc Twenty20 competition in the Caribbean.
The winner-takes-all prize money for the final in the Super Series was close to $20 million, but England lost out to the Stanford Superstars’ side. England will look to put that experience behind them as they prepare to face India, and instead draw on a recent 4-0 win over South Africa in a 50-over series.
"India are playing fantastic cricket at the moment, it's going to be a difficult series," said Pietersen, whose limited-overs team arrived Thursday in the western Indian city, a week ahead of the one-day series opener on November 14 in Rajkot.
"Coming to India is tough, beating India in India is tough," Pietersen said. "We drew the Test series last time in 2004, but we got smashed 5-1 in one-day internationals. We're looking to improve.
"We too have been playing good cricket. We're learning how to win and beating South Africa 4-0 is something we haven't done before."
Pietersen, who took over as England's captain during the home series against South Africa last summer, said tackling the conditions in India was a challenge faced by all touring teams.
"The Indian pitches are pretty flat. Reverse swing is important for picking wickets and spin comes pretty soon into the game," he said. "I like to give my players the confidence to know they can go out there and perform."
India is currently playing the fourth and final Test of its’ series against Australia, and leads 1-0 after winning the second Test by 320 runs.
Coach Peter Moores said England's players need to push the Stanford Superstars loss out of their mind.
"That was a different sort of competition. It produced a very big game in Twenty20 cricket, but we're going to play 50-over cricket now," said Moores.
"We finished very strongly against South Africa in one-dayers. We've a new captain in Pietersen bringing his style of captaincy to India."
Moores was relying on its batsmen to tackle the home team's spinners as England seeks to repair a poor recent record in India.
"The key is to get consistent runs. Our batters have to fire. That was one thing that worked very well against South Africa," Moores said.
"India have got strong players with Dhoni being the key member of the team," said Moores, adding that star batsman Sachin Tendulkar's absence from the Indian squad for the initial three one-dayers was a "bonus" for England.