India tour tougher than Ashes, says Matt Prior

England wicket-keeper batsman Matt Prior believes beating India in India is bigger than winning an away Ashes. The Englishmen are due to visit India for a four-match Test series next month, and considering India’s wonderful record at home, he is not reluctant
to admit that it will not be an easy journey for the touring side.

"Absolutely, may be even bigger," Prior said when asked whether beating India in India was as big as or bigger than the Ashes.

"The records are there, we hadn’t beaten Australia in Australia for 24 years, the last time we did it. We haven’t beaten India for 27 years, it is going to be a monumental effort," Prior told ESPNCricinfo’s show ‘Alison’s Tea Break’.

"But the thing I love about this team is that whenever there have been targets and records to be broken, we have usually stood up to the task and broken those records. Winning in the sub-continent for this team is almost the final frontier. It’s something
we haven’t done and we want to do," he said.

England are making their first Test campaign under new skipper Alastair Cook. The left-hander was given the reins following Andrew Strauss’ recent decision to retire from international cricket.

The Poms are already under immense pressure following their loss at the hands of the Proteas, who also snatched the top place on the ICC Test rankings.

On Pietersen’s text messages controversy, Prior shared, "I’ve seen Kev, we had a good chat or meeting, whatever you want to call it. Obviously I don’t want to go into too much detail about what went on in the meeting but the important thing about it is KP
playing for England will make England a better team. He is a phenomenal player, we all know that.

"The really important thing is that we are all pulling and moving in the same direction, and whether it be KP, or myself – if one person steps out of line in the other direction, it’s tough," he uttered.

"Our team ethic and team ethos has been the most important thing in our success over the last couple of years and we want to make sure we look after that and make sure we can get it back to where it was."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Oct 24 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry