Flower focuses on skill needed to thwart spin

The England coach yesterday reflected on the “horrible defeat” at Eden Gardens which on Tuesday consigned the tourists to a 5-0 series scoreline.

He insists mere rhetoric about ‘lessons being learned’ will not suffice, if England are to have any chance of faring better when they return to India in early 2013 for seven more ODIs.

By then, he warns England’s batsmen must have made themselves better equipped to play spin in the subcontinent and to deal with pressure situations.

England arrived at the start of this month full of optimism that they could confirm the superiority they demonstrated over India on home soil only weeks earlier, albeit in a country where they had lost their two previous ODI series 5-1 and 5-0. Yet they were a long way short of requirements.

Flower said: “We’ve got to come back out here with a different set of batting skills, to deal with their spinners in the middle order.”

England’s final embarrassment saw all 10 wickets fall for 47, to be all out for 176 in pursuit of 271-8.