Swann knows that England are under pressure to prove that they do not choke against spinners

With all the ongoing talk about England’s struggles against spin and failure to adapt to the conditions of the subcontinent, off-spinner Graeme Swann has had enough and stated that there is no mystery when it comes to India’s spinners.

Excluding matches against Bangladesh, England have won just two Tests out of their last 22 in the subcontinent, which shows that either they still have not got used to the conditions or they are still being bamboozled by the spin bowlers.

In this year alone, England have shown that they have struggled against spin, especially when they were whitewashed 3-0 by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in January, where spinner Saeed Ajmal used a variety of mystery balls to leave the England batsmen scratching their heads as they walked back to the pavilion after being given out.

By the end of the Test series, Ajmal had finished with 24 wickets under his belt.

England managed to secure a draw in their two-Test series against Sri Lanka, but their troubles against spin was once again highlighted in the first Test when Rangana Hearth took 12 wickets.

It was only thanks to Kevin Pietersen’s brilliant knock of 151 that allowed England to secure victory in the second Test at Colombo, despite Herath taking seven more wickets.

In those five Test matches alone, 84 per cent of England’s wickets were picked up by spinners.

But, Swann is extremely confident heading into England’s four-Test series against India since the Indian pitches are “more traditional” compared to that of the United Arab Emirates.

“I think last winter was a bit different, first of all, when we played in Dubai that was not really the subcontinent, that wicket was very unique in the sense that it was very skiddy and span as well. India’s wickets are more traditional, more what people are used to, so I would be very surprised if that happened again. Secondly, we were bowled out by a mystery spinner that batsmen could not pick. India are not really blessed with a mystery spinner like that,” Swann said.

England will now have to face an Indian spin attack which consists of Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh.

Despite having an outstanding start to his Test career after having picked up 49 wickets at an average of 26.63, Swann believes that Ashwin is still not a mystery spinner.

When asked what his view about England’s struggles against spin on the subcontinent were, Swann said: “That has been levelled at us for a few years now and justifiably so. We have had a poor record against spin bowling over there. I think that is more of a mental thing now because the wickets are not that different around the world. Certainly the wickets we played on in Sri Lanka were not really spin friendly. They were not any different to playing at Old Trafford or Trent Bridge. They tend to spin more on day four and five but at times like that we need to forget where we are playing and just go out and play the ball as it comes down.”

Swann noted that the England batsmen had learnt from their mistakes against Pakistan and Sri Lanka and were highly unlikely to collapse so easily against spin bowling during their series against India.

“I think we went into our shells a bit in the UAE and suffered as a consequence, we have learned, certainly as batsmen, that you have to be positive and you have to be more aggressive when you bat. We have got so much talent in the squad that I would not be surprised if we went to India in the Test series and really dominated with the bat,” Swann added.

Since defeating Sri Lanka back in 2000-2001, England have not claimed an away Test series victory against any of the major subcontinent teams, but Swann stated that he had full confidence in newly appointed Test captain Alastair Cook to put an end to that record.

“It is probably the trickiest place in the world to go and win apart from Australia. We did it in Australia; we went over there and we won 3-1, most of the current team have got experience of that tour and we need to take that to India, use that and go there with belief that we can win. They are exceptionally good players on their own pitches. We are going to need to play very good cricket to beat them, but I firmly believe we can do it,” Swann said.