Harmison believes that England’s pace attack will continue to have a tough time picking up wickets

Former England pace bowler Steve Harmison has announced that he expects spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar to be the national team’s top wicket takers during their Test series against India since conditions highly favour spin bowlers.

Harmison noted that England’s pace attack would struggle to deal with the heat and humidity of the subcontinent, but added that they have a vital role to play as well.

During his international career, Harmison represented England in three Test matches in India and only managed to take six wickets, which shows just how tough conditions are for seam bowlers.

Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports, Harmison said: “It’s very difficult. I’m sure England are banking on Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar doing the bulk of the wicket-taking, they (the England seamers) all bowl well with the reverse swinging ball and I think that’s going to be the key for England whether it’s (Steven) Finn, (Tim) Bresnan, (James) Anderson, (Stuart) Broad and (Graham) Onions. They all need to bowl well with the reverse swinging ball but I imagine the spinners are the ones that take the bulk of the wickets, if you want to be the best bowler that you can possibly be you’ve got to go out and perform in these countries.”

Harmison stated that the key for England to win the remaining two Test matches would be to take early wickets and keep the Indian batsmen under constant pressure.

“I’m sure they’ll have a gameplan to stop boundaries and cut off the big shots that the Indians do like to play and build pressure that way,” Harmison added. “England’s gameplan first and foremost will be to stop them from scoring. England won 4-0 in England when they bombarded the Indians with short balls, they probably won’t be able to do that again as the ball doesn’t tend to bounce above shin height. It will be tough but I’m sure they’ll do a good job.”