Former England spinner Graeme Swann believes England would be achieving something bigger than their “obsession” Ashes if the Joe Root-led side manages to defeat India next month. Swann added that India seem “virtually unbeatable” after their historic Test triumph in Australia.
England would be touring India for a four-match Test series, beginning on February 5, followed by five T20 Internationals and three ODIs.
“England always saying ‘well the Ashes are coming up’. Australia are not the best team in the world anymore. They used to be, by miles… they’re not now, but we’re obsessed with this,” Swann told The Sun.
Swann said if England should move away from the fixation of just trying to beat Australia in away series. The Ashes is scheduled to start in December this year in Australia.
“We have to move away from looking forward to the Ashes series. 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?” he asked.
“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’?
“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 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.”
