India vs England: “Beating India away is better than winning Ashes away,” says former England spinner Graeme Swann
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Graeme Swann
The Indian team has with time, under Virat Kohli’s captaincy established itself as one of the best Test sides in the world. The side has proved to be near-undefeatable at home and have also notched up wins in away series. Their most recent win came in the remarkable series against Australia in Australia. From a position of great peril following a batting collapse in the first Test that led to a loss, the side bounced back under stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane to take the series 2-1.
Former England spinner Graeme Swann spoke to The Sun today about the invincibility surrounding the current Indian team and said, “England always saying ‘well the Ashes are coming up’. B***ocks to 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. Australia are not the best team in the world anymore. They used to be, by miles, and they were the benchmark to strive for.”
‘They’re virtually unbeatable in India’ – Graeme Swann
Swann further spoke about how beating India in India would be an extraordinary achievement. “They’re not now, but we’re obsessed with this. I think beating India in India is a far higher thing to strive for right now. They’re virtually unbeatable in India since we beat them in 2012. Why isn’t that the whole thing? Why aren’t people saying ‘right, this is a chance to get this team with good players of spin, use their feet, change the whole way we face spin bowling, and then we can beat India’,” he said.
“We’re not going to beat India unless spinners are taking wickets, and then we’ve got someone batting like we had with Kevin Pietersen. He changed the way England had ever played against spin. He was ultra-aggressive. Let’s face it KP was a brilliant player and he batted unbelievably well there. 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,” Swann signed off.
The first Test between India and England begins on February 5 in Chennai.
Also Read: India vs England: First two Tests in Chennai to be held behind closed doors
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