Tom Clark: England in India – a tour fit to rival the Ashes

As England finalise their preparations for a gruelling two months of Test cricket in India it is long past time to consider that the Ashes should not be the sole barometer of where English cricket stands.

Ashes cricket has an unrivalled history but that should not mean it is put on a pedestal to the detriment of all other series.

Each tour should be about winning, not, as so often has been the case, blooding players for a crack at the Aussies every few years. An away Ashes win is a monumental achievement but so is victory over five Tests in India.

David Gower and Alastair Cook are the only England captains to have achieved that in the last 40 years, with Gower describing winning in India as "a tough old thing to do" and Cook regarding it as "on par" with an away Ashes victory. But it is not only England who struggle in India.  

Australia have won just four series in India, with even the great teams of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh unable to achieve the feat. In the last 50 years, only stand-in skipper Adam Gilchrist has managed to lead the Aussies to victory, a triumph hailed as the final frontier for the all-conquering side.

England are not alone in seeing the Ashes as the priority though, Ricky Ponting calls it "the pinnacle of the game". But with all due respect to a cricketing legend, he is wrong.

Victory over the best team in the world, or the nearest challengers, should be regarded as the pinnacle. Granted right now that would be defeating Australia but the world number one changes. History tells us victory in India is a harder task than winning Down Under and it is time supporters of England and Australia looked beyond their own rivalry and embraced the challenges of all cricketing nations.

India is a tour like no other and victory there is arguably the tallest order in world cricket right now. 

Three years ago former England spinner Graeme Swann made that very point, saying: “If you want to be the best team in the world, let's be the best team all over the planet, not just trying to beat Australia away. 

“We have to move away from looking forward to the Ashes series. It's mentality ingrained in this country.”

He added: “I think beating India in India is a far higher thing to strive for right now. They're virtually unbeatable in India since we beat them in 2012."

Swann’s point remains valid now. The Ashes should no longer be the be-all and end-all of how success is measured in English cricket. Victory over the next seven weeks will be far more significant than an Ashes win, home or away.

You only need to look at England’s record in India to see how hard it is to triumph there as they have just four wins in 15 series over 91 years. 

And it goes beyond England’s troubles as since the turn of the century in series with two or more matches only South Africa (2000) Australia (2004) and England (2012) have been victorious in India.

With just 13 away Test wins in India over the past 24 years, winning a Test match in India is a rare occurrence, let alone a series.

As brilliant as Australia have been at home, England, India and South Africa have a combined six series wins Down Under this century, suggesting that while victory is of course hard to come by, it might not be quite as much of a challenge as winning in India.

A humongous Test awaits England when the series starts on Thursday with their style of play set to thrill and exasperate in equal measure.

Will Bazball work in India? I can’t answer that but I am extremely excited to find out.

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