India. The very word must invite a sense of defeatism in all but the toughest England cricketer. There was a malfunctioning World Cup campaign earlier this year and then there is the little matter of one win in their past 16 one-day internationals against them there. England in India is not normally a pretty sight.
Graham Thorpe is one of the men charged with changing that. Thorpe, the ECB's lead batting coach and one of England's doughtiest performers on the subcontinent, heads off to India with an England Performance Programme squad on Monday for an intense schedule of slow bowling on turning pitches before a Lions squad visits Bangladesh and Sri Lanka after Christmas.
England visit India again next winter and several Performance squad members will hope to be on the tour. Jonny Bairstow's gilded reputation took a bruising during India's recent one-day whitewash of England but the Yorkshireman has the desire to re-evaluate; Leicestershire's James Taylor, wristy and quick on his feet, looks a natural in Indian conditions, and England have more young spinners heading for India than can be comfortably crammed into a tuk-tuk.
There can be few better guides than Thorpe. It took several years of patience before he fulfilled his potential, but the investment was worthwhile.
He averaged 45 over 100 Tests between 1993 and 2005 and although he did not quite manage a Test century in India, a fine hundred against Pakistan in Lahore, where he scored only one boundary but manoeuvred the ball around with dexterity, and some herculean feats of endurance in Sri Lanka with Muttiah Muralitharan at his peak, sweat pouring over a white headband, remain seared on the memory.
"I'm pleased the programmes this winter are all Asia," said Thorpe as he supervised the squad at the national performance centre in Loughborough, temperatures turned up to 36C to try to replicate the heat, if not the humidity, they must now combat.
"It will open their eyes up very quickly. It's important to be a rounded cricketer, skilled in all parts of the world. I would say to them: 'If you have to play against [Morne] Morkel and [Dale] Steyn at the Wanderers tomorrow, have you got a game against the short, bouncing ball? If we threw you into Colombo a week later are you comfortable playing on a big turning pitch in warm conditions?' The county game prepares for swing and seam but you don't get much of that high intensity of pace or spin.
"It is probably the hardest challenge for England cricketers to go [to India] and believe you can win. There are times when wickets fall, the firecrackers go off and you are walking over the rope and if you don't get your composure right you don't implement the right technique at the right time, and it can all fall down."
Technically England's batsmen again failed to come up to the mark during their 5-0 whitewash last month. Thorpe's analysis will centre upon fitness, footwork and adaptability. It is a fair bet that Rahul Dravid will figure in some of the video footage, his ability to read length quickly and get deep into his crease having impressed England all year.
"In Test cricket you can survive for a long time on a defensive game, but in one-day cricket you actually have to do something. Fitness is important because you can concentrate for longer periods of time. Then technique has to be spot-on. That is lots to do with being comfortable about footwork, potentially coming out of the crease but also about how well and how far you push back.
"Yes, you need to know where your big shots are, your sweep shots are, but you also need to know where your release shots are, how to break your wrists, how to rotate strike by getting deeper into the crease. Picking length is crucial against spin. We need to recognise what they do better than us and introduce it to our game.
"And can they self-correct? If they make a mistake can they correct it in the middle? If you make a mistake once, you might get away with it. If you make it twice you are back in the dressing room sitting on your arse."
As a player Thorpe was influenced by the two Fletchers, Keith and then Duncan. Keith remained supportive in his early years as he became such a fixture on England A tours that his detractors, and for a while there were a few, would carp that they were designed especially for him. Duncan put even more emphasis upon changing England's approach against spin, advocating a forward-press technique and heavy reliance upon the sweep.
"Keith spoke about soft hands and sweeps, and Duncan was the one who really tried to push on in that area. He talked about the forward press but I think the game has gone on even more since then. Dravid will press but he will also go way back in his crease when the need demands."
Graham Gooch has made a point of saying, as batting coach of the England senior side, that his role by that stage should not be to teach technique but to teach run-scoring, which has more to do with game plans against individual bowlers and elimination of mistakes. Thorpe's young thrusters are not quite at that stage.
"If Goochie says as batting coach with England that he wants to teach them run-making not technique then I understand that because by then you hope they have got their technique largely sorted. They have just got the final bit to deal with of 'Lights on, action, Sky Sports, the press in a room and everything.'
"I'm not afraid to talk technique to them without taking away their naturalness. They are not robots. They have their own individual flair. But it is about handling the best balls at the highest level or they are not going to make it."
"I tell the coaches below me that I want blokes to have an idea of how to play the short ball, or spin bowling, before they get to me. If I have to do engine changes at the age of 19 it's going to be a problem. I want to be doing oil changes."