JOIN US'Our approach has been different'
The current tour of India has been certainly one of the most successful England have undertaken, and off-spinner Graeme Swann attributed it to a changed approach, one that embraced India.
Excerpts from his media interaction:
On England’s approach:
It is probably bit different this time around, how we have approached the trip. We have really tried to embrace India and embrace the series. We believe we can win it and I am not sure that has always been the case, it may have been, I have only been on one Test tour before but there certainly seems to be more belief in this group right from the outset.
On how things changed after the Ahmedabad defeat: After losing the game in Ahmedabad…it was very easy to get into the rut of losing games. There was a lot of focus back then that this tour was not going to be like that whether it was the team management or the senior players talking to the room. It was made very clear that Mumbai was the chance to level the series and anyone who didn’t see it that way wasn’t sort of welcome in the dressing room.
On the talk about pitches in this series: I don’t know who is talking about the pitch, whether it is the press…and we don’t read the press in the changing room. We have missed out on a lot of that. It is not strange for a home team to ask for a wicket to suit their team. We do that when play in England because we want it to suit our bowlers. The fact that we have won the last two Tests is a testimony to how well we have played and not a lot to do about the pitch.
On whether England has become an all-condition team here: Well, we haven’t beaten them in all conditions because we lost the first game in Ahmedabad. We are not taking them for granted. We don’t pat ourselves on the back and say ‘look how well we have played in the last two games’ because that is a very dangerous place to get in.
On the way forward for England: I am sure India will come out actually fighting because they have to win the game and equally so I am sure we will approach the game because attack is our best form of defence. We don’t worry about what happened in the past. It would be lovely to win a series here and that is what we came here to do and we have put ourselves in a very good position to do that. In a week’s time hopefully I will be sitting here or one of my team-mates will be sitting here and will be the man of the match and telling you how well we played and how magnificent a year it has been.