There is a lot of buzz around England’s upcoming Test tour to India, starting February 5 in Chennai. Both the teams are coming into the series with historic triumphs away from home. While India defeated Australia 2-1 to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under, England whitewashed Sri Lanka 2-0 in their own backyard.

Ahead of the highly-anticipated series, England batting coach Graham Thorpe has said that the visiting bowlers will need to bowl their best balls repeatedly if they want to put the hosts, led by Virat Kohli, under any sort of pressure.

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After enduring failure in an away series against England in 2014, Kohli has demolished the English attack both at home (2016) and away (2018) by scoring over 500 runs in each series.

“We know that he is a fantastic player and he has shown that for many years now. Virat is in one of that batting orders which understands home conditions very well.”

“The key for our bowling attack will be to bowl our ‘best ball’ as often as we can. I don’t think we can ask for anything more from our spinners and seamers. We need to have runs on the board and then having the Indian batting order under pressure will really be the key for us. To take the game deep will be an important aspect for England,” Thorpe said during a virtual media conference on January 29, as quoted by PTI.

Earlier, India used to rely on their spinners to win Test matches at home but the scenario has changed now and the Kohli-led side boasts a formidable pace attack as well.

“The one thing about the Indian bowling attack is, it’s not just about spin. I suppose their seam attack is also strong and so from that point of view it’s not to just get side-tracked completely in into the spin side of things as well,” Thorpe stated.

Preparing for both Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin is a tough challenge but the batting coach understands that a balance needs to be created.

“Indian bowling has developed into a very good attack and we are very aware of that. When you come to the sub-continent you will have to deal with spin. More so with Indian attack, we are aware. The training time (three days) will be used to strike a fine balance practising both.”

Thorpe said that the four-Test series will be a big learning curve for some England batsmen, who haven’t played earlier in the sub-continent.

“Some of our players haven’t played in sub-continent, so in terms of development might be behind others but they are working hard and hopefully can put on a good show. It’ll be a bit of a learning curve for some of them as well.”

“We may have some players who are slightly more aggressive and some players would be comfortable to bat all day of they can. We want our players to recognise situations and that may be where they are able to trust their defence.

“Maybe they are able to rotate strike whether it’s against seamers or spinners. Also how can we apply pressure on Indian bowlers will be one of the biggest challenges.”

According to Thorpe, there couldn’t have been a bigger challenge than facing an Indian team that has just beaten Australia in their own den.

“India at home is a real challenge. They’re playing very good cricket and have been very strong at home. They’ve been coming back off a win in Australia as well, so for us, it presents a real challenge. Let’s say that’s sort of where you want to be as a player,” he concluded.

(With PTI inputs)