Thaindian News

London, July 16 (IANS) England batsman Eoin Morgan says they can “surprise” World No.1 India in the upcoming four-match Test series.

The 24-year-old is hoping England can utilise their own conditions in an attempt to catch India off guard.

“It is an advantage, particularly over here in England. There’s no conditions like it in the world, especially if we prepare pitches that are conducive to swing, bounce and seam,” Morgan was quoted as saying in ecb.co.uk.

Despite only managing a 1-0 result against Sri Lanka, Morgan insisted that they were in good shape for the battle against India.

“We are well prepared, we have half a season under our belt already and hopefully it will come to them as a surprise.”

“A lot of our preparation so far this summer has been building towards this series.”

“With the momentum we’ve had over the last year and a half or so, we feel that we are in a good position and we’re ready for a good test and there’s no bigger test than the number one side in the world.”

Morgan has no doubts England have enough variation and quality in their attack to trouble the star-studded India batting line-up.

“I think we do. We’ve proved over the winter how we take our wickets, we build pressure and put the batsmen under pressure to score runs,” he said.

“Runs are going to be key. I don’t think we can look too far ahead in regards of comparing the two sides because they have a lot of legends of the game playing and guys who are at the back end of their career after having magnificent careers.

“We can’t look too far ahead of ourselves; we have got to do our own things and do it the way we do it. If we can pile on the runs and take wickets, we will do exceptionally well.”

With India boasting the likes of Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma, the left-hander knows how important it is to contain the tourists’ attack if England are to be successful in this series.

“They have an exceptional bowling attack. Bowlers win Test matches more than anything else and to get to a position that they have done, their bowlers have bowled out a lot of teams,” he said.

The left-hander cemented his place as England’s Test number six during the series win over Sri Lanka, notably by scoring seventies at Lord’s and the Rose Bowl.

With Paul Collingwood occupying that position last winter during the Ashes, Morgan did not play Australia in Tests, but now faces his biggest challenge against the top- ranked side in the world.

“I’ve felt in good form now for a while, probably since Australia, so it’s nice to get some runs under my belt and keep ticking over until maybe that match-winning performance comes around the corner.”

Morgan said England will have to play there is “exceptionally well” to beat India.

“We feel that again the momentum we have had and the cricket we have played, if we play to our potential, we will compete to a high standard,” said Morgan who scored 168 runs against Sri Lanka at an average of 56.