Pietersen offers no excuses for Test battle
Pietersen says his players have no excuse not to perform well in series
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Tuesday, 09, Dec 2008 10:32
England captain Kevin Pietersen says they have no excuse for poor performances as they prepare for the Test series against India which begins on Thursday.
Some observers felt that in the wake of the terror attacks in Mumbai England's mere presence in India for the series would be enough, but Pietersen insists that will not be offering any excuses once the action starts.
"You could say we can't lose in this situation, but that's also a negative way of looking at things and finding excuses - I don't want any," he said.
"We need to make sure that our primary focus is to try and win this series."
"What has happened has happened and we can't control it, but we're in a very privileged position to be playing Test match cricket in India and we've got to deal with it in a professional manner.
"We've got to chuck everything away that's happened, create this little bubble that we've got here and go and perform."
Pietersen and his players will be looking for revenge after being humiliated in the one-day series, which they trailed 5-0 before the seven-game series was abandoned following the terrorist attacks.
England's Test record in India is extremely poor, but they do have memories of victory on Indian soil courtesy of the last Test appearance there two years ago.
Pietersen insists that he is once again focused on cricket after the turmoil over whether or not the series should go ahead.
"There are a lot of cricket issues to think through," said Pietersen.
"My head has been given a full working over during the last few days.
"The last six weeks haven't been ideal but over the last three days there have been sleepless nights trying to figure out things.
"It's been emotional trying to work out what players are going to do and what team we were going to bring and now we've got a full squad it means we can choose from that.
"The cricket brain has switched on and decisions have to be made."