It is hardly the biggest revelation ever to come out of an England cricket coach, but Peter Moores has admitted that his team do not have ‘long enough’ to prepare sufficiently for their two test matches against India.
Following the terror attacks on Mumbai, the England players flew home on Saturday. However, the test squad is set to fly out to Abu Dhabi today and as long as they are happy with the security measures in place – the first test will start on 11th December in Chennai.
This means that they are flying out just a week before the first ball is bowled in the test series and Moores admits that their ‘preparations are going to be compromised in many ways’. This is in reference to the fact that the team are training in a country, Abu Dhabi, where they aren’t actually going to be playing.

Then there is the fact that the quality of the facilities available for England’s training is unknown as the coaching staff haven’t had the chance to check them out as they normally would. So, overall, the tour isn’t going to be perfect, but considering the circumstances – it was never going to be was it?
The pleasing thing for Moores will be that all of his senior players have decided to make the trip to Abu Dhabi, quashing speculation that several England stars would opt out of the tour altogether. As a result of this, Moores believes that the team could ‘pull tighter together’ than ever before.
Moores may well be right with this statement and Kevin Pietersen’s men may well have a better team spirit than ever before on this tour. However, it doesn’t overshadow the fact that they haven’t played a test match for over three months, so they are going to be a bit rusty to begin with.
Considering that this is a series contains only two tests, this is something that England can’t afford – a poor start. If, for example, they bat first in Chennai and get dismissed cheaply, not many cricket odds will expect them to go on and win the match, let alone the series. A positive start is crucial if England are to make a success of these two matches.
This type of talk could end up being irrelevant though as the team could still opt out of travelling to India from Abu Dhabi. Moores is hoping for a definitive decision by Sunday, something that will depend on whether the security measures that were promised become reality.
Hopefully though, the tests will get the go ahead and after what has been rather traumatic time for everyone, the focus can be on the cricket matches between England and India.
By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about cricket betting
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