Cricket returns to center stage in India after the Mumbai attacks as Kevin Pietersen’s England buckle up for the two-Test series starting in Chennai today.
The Tests were in grave doubt when England abandoned the seven-match one-day international series and returned home last month following the terror attacks in India’s financial capital that left 172 dead and almost 300 injured.
But security checks and a shift in venues — Ahmedabad was scheduled to host the first Test and Mumbai the second — convinced the England and Wales Cricket Board to send the team back to India after much debate.
Pietersen now wants his under-prepared squad to focus on the contest ahead against a team buoyed by their 2-0 triumph against world champions Australia in October and last month and their dominance of the one-day games against the tourists.
“It is going to be very difficult,” the England captain told reporters.
“India have just had a fantastic series against Australia and they are playing with a lot of confidence. I am not going to sit here and say we are going to win the series, but we will certainly give it our best shot,” he said.
England, who lost all five one-day games against India last month, last played a Test match in August, when Pietersen’s men beat South Africa in his first game as captain. Pietersen said now that they had come to India, any debate about the rights and wrongs of going there in the wake of the Mumbai attacks had to be put aside.
“We need to chuck everything away that has happened in the past to make sure that now our primary goal and focus is to try and win this Test match series,” Pietersen said.
“What has happened, has happened and we can’t control it, but we are in a very privileged position to be playing Test match cricket in India and we have got to deal with it in a professional manner,” he said.
The outcome of the first Test, to be held under tight security at the Chidambaram Stadium, could hinge on the weather, with rain forecast over the next three days.
The second and final Test will be played in the northern town of Mohali from Dec. 19.
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