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Pietersen eyes new start against India

07/11/2008

England captain Kevin Pietersen claims his side's defeat in the big-money Stanford Twenty20 match last week will have "absolutely no bearing" on the upcoming India series.

Pietersen leads his side to the sub-continent for a two-Test and seven-ODI series off the back of a humiliating ten-wicket defeat to the Stanford Superstars in a match that could have netted the England players $1 million (£610,000) each.

However, the skipper says that result will not distract his players from the task at hand - namely competing with a side that is currently well placed to beat Australia in a four-match Test series this week.

"India are playing fantastic cricket right now and it is tough beating India in India," said Pietersen, who will be taking charge of his first away series.

"We drew the 2004 Test series [in India], but got smashed 5-1 in the one-dayers. We're looking to improve from that."

He added: "Last week wasn't special but it has absolutely no bearing on what will happen here in India."

Pietersen said he is expecting first-choice spinner Monty Panesar to play a major part for the Test side, and also called on his bowlers to make good use of the reverse swing that he thinks will be generated by the sub-continental surfaces.

"The Indian pitches are pretty flat. Reverse swing is important for picking up wickets and spin comes pretty soon into the game," he continued.

"I like to give my players the confidence to know they can go out there and perform.

"We too have been playing good cricket. We're learning how to win... beating South Africa 4-0 [in the summer of 2008] is something we haven't done before."