Kevin Pietersen
As the hammering England took at the hands of Mumbai showed, India is not an easy place to tour. There are all sorts of things to get used to, like the heat, the food, the crowds, the noise - and that’s before you’ve stepped on to the field. Batsmen have to adapt to the slow conditions and bowlers have to adjust their length and be right on top of their full repertoire of variations. Oh, and don’t forget India have some very good cricketers. As we’ve just seen with Australia, you can come unstuck very badly indeed.
If the Stanford game hadn’t happened I would look at the defeat earlier this week and pass it off as just one of those things. But two losses in three games will test Kevin Pietersen like he hasn’t been tested yet as captain, especially as the side were bowled out for under 100 twice. These are uncharted waters for KP and it’s crucial he manages any doubts that start to creep in, even for a bloke as confident as he is. The heat in India means it is easy to lose focus. The first of seven one-day internationals starts tomorrow in Rajkot and, for the next five weeks, focus will be vital.
Pietersen has two main challenges. He has to be careful about the way he motivates the guys, he has to find a balance between overdoing it and not doing it enough to keep them going. They don’t want to have to say “Get off my back, captain”. He also needs to get used to the different field settings required in India. Depending on the line and length you bowl, fields need to be squarer than they are in England as the ball comes on to the bat so slowly That means it’s harder to hit down the ground in India and shots you think are going through, say, mid-on end up going through midwicket instead.
The problem is that India’s batsmen are so used to the conditions at home, and so talented at manoeuvring the ball with their supple wrists, that setting the right field can be easier said than done. The key will be how much help Pietersen gets - he won’t want people to go quiet when things aren’t going well.
For the batsmen the challenge will be to think on their feet. I always felt when I was coach that working the ball around in the middle overs of one-day internationals in the subcontinent was a huge problem for English batsmen. I’d look across the changing room and reckon that of our seven or eight batters who were good on quick pitches, maybe only two of them were at home on very slow pitches as well. The conditions are just so alien to a lot of them.
It will help having Andy Flower out there as the batting coach because he always played spin so well, but it will be crucial how he gets his message across. Having said that it still comes down to individuals - they have to understand what Flower says, but they have to put their own plans into action too. Adaptation is the key and guys like Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, who uses his wrists well, will be important. Ravi Bopara could be key too, as can Ian Bell, who is a better manipulator of the ball than many realise.
And if your wrists aren’t doing the job you must be aware of the position of your hips and shoulders in getting your body into the right shape to find the gaps. It isn’t easy, especially if the required run-rate is mounting, the sun is beating down and your decision-making becomes skewed under pressure. The subcontinent can pose problems like nowhere else.
As far as the bowling is concerned, fast reverse swing is the key, so Andrew Flintoff and Jimmy Anderson will be important, particularly in the death overs. But equally vital among the not-so-fast bowlers, such as Collingwood and Bopara, will be variations of pace, especially after the ball roughs up. You need the discipline of bowling the right length and for the variations to land in the same areas - width and short balls will be punished. England must also make sure they swing the new ball and locate a slightly fuller length than at home, but not by too much.
For all the disappointment of the Stanford match - and I still find it hard to believe the players weren’t able to get up for $1m-a-man in the way the West Indians managed to - I think this may be a good time to take on India. They might look at victory over Australia as the high point of their year, a bit like we did in 2005, and take their foot off the gas. They will also be very tired after a tough four-Test series and in that respect, it could be similar to what happened to South Africa in England last summer.
England, by contrast, ought to be fresh and enthusiastic. The first couple of matches will tell us more about the two camps’ respective states of mind.
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Andrew Flintoff, Andy Flower, Jimmy Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collinwood, Ravi Chopra
England star all rounder Andrew Flintoff going to be recovered day by day after the knee surgery, but he miss the tour of Bangladesh which will be held on feb 2010. ” My recovery is still on track” told by Flintoff on his website. This tour begins 28 feb with three one day international and two test matches series. This is to be remembered that Andrew Flintoff has been retired from test cricket but he is very hope full to be appeared in ODI’s.
