England, who are currently playing a Test series in Sri Lanka would be prepping for the big India vs. England series which is scheduled to be played in the next month. Amidst this, the 41-year old ex-England spinner Greame Swann has said that “mentally ingrained” English side must forget The Ashes for now and focus on defeating India in their own backyard. He was speaking to The Sun.
He said that The Ashes have the ability to attract more eyeballs in England and that the traditional series always gets the maximum media attention. On the contrary, he said that “If you want to be the best team in the world, let's be the best team all over the planet, not just trying to beat Australia away. We have to move away from looking forward to the Ashes series. It's a mentality ingrained in this country.”
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He also said that the British are obsessed with beating Australia and it shouldn’t be like that as Australia are no longer the best team in the world. He continued by saying, “I think beating India in India is a far higher thing to strive for right now.”
Swann also remembered the 2012 England’s tour to India and how they defeated India but have been unable to defeat India since. He feels, England’s way of playing and approaching spin bowling should be changed. He gave the example of the way Kevin Pietersen played in 2012 against Indian spinners. Swann feels Pietersen changed the way the team approached Indian spin bowling and regrets not being able to reproduce the same again.
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He said, “We haven't done it since, we haven't learnt from how Kev batted on that trip and haven't gone on and used that as the blueprint.” Only time will tell if Swann’s advice would be taken seriously by the England team management and the players.