India will be itching for revenge: Cook

England outplayed India in all three formats of the game in their recent home series but one-day skipper Alastair Cook says beating M S Dhoni`s men in their backyard in an ODI series next month would be a lot tougher task.

Stating that Indian team would be "itching" for revenge, Cook said, "Of course it will be difficult over there. They will have a point to prove and the conditions will obviously suit them. I doubt we will see much green grass on the wickets we play on.”

"They are world champions at home and itching to get revenge. It is down to us and how we cope with conditions and how we play. The best players adapt to that. We have players who have never played in India in an England shirt.”

"The learning curve will be so steep but they will handle it well," Cook told.

India suffered a humiliating 0-3 defeat in one-dayers in England in a five-match series last month with a match washed out and another ending in a tie. England also humbled India 4-0 in a Test series that resulted in the latter losing their number one ranking.

Although Cook is aware that a number of key players in the Indian team -- Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh -- have been ruled out of the first two ODIs due to injuries but he admitted that in their own backyard, India are a tough side to beat.

The tour of India is certainly going to be a litmus test for Cook, both as captain and as a player because England have not beaten India in a one-day series in India since 1985, with their last two series ending in 5-1 and 5-0 thrashings.

But Cook is drawing confidence from a good summer in one-dayers where he has averaged 58 and scored runs at a strike rate of 95.

"It could not have gone too much better for me," said Cook.

"As a batsman I always said I could play one-day cricket for England. I had to back that up with action straightaway and as a captain you want to start well as a player. It gives you that added sense of authority. It kind of ends doubts and helps your captaincy.”

"It takes time for you to get used to being captain of the side and the coach and players get used to you. Really I have only done it for six weeks. It takes longer than that but people are working out how I do things and what I expect from players," he added.

England vs India: Men against Boys

It is simply a question of when rather than if. When will England beat this woeful India side to go 3-0 up in the series and become the top Test side in the world.

England stamped their authority over the Indians, keeping them virtually out of the Birmingham Test by piling on 456 runs for the loss of just three wickets, thus taking 232 runs lead by the end of second day's play on Thursday.

As this Test match and series progress, surely more humiliation beckons for this Team India. It has been men against boys in this match and same has been the case in the series.

This Team India are looking out of sorts in every department, fielders are unable to hold on to catches, bowlers don't have that much talent in themselves to pick twenty wickets and batsman are not gutsy enough to face the seaming conditions.

The prime example of this is Alastair Cook, the only English players who was struggling in the series for runs came good on the second day of the third Test, when he smashed Indian bowlers all over the park and came back in the form in fine fashion.

Rather than attacking him, India bowlers allowed him to cut lose and allowed him to call the shots. He is just 18 short of what would be a brilliant double century. But this has been the case for Team India over the years. Team India have always been the bunny of out-of-form players whether it was the case of Saeed Anwar's 194 in 1997 or whether it has been Shivnarine Chanderpaul who has most of the time scored runs against Indian attack.

The way this English side has humiliated Team India, it has put question marks over many Indian players. Suresh Raina who has been seen as the future Indian skipper has been one of the biggest flop show. Going by his dismissal in the first innings of the third Test, he cannot even play a straight ball forget about the short pitched stuff. Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma any day would have been a better bet than overt hyped Raina.

It's not just Raina, MS Dhoni has been inconsistent in past few years, Yuvraj Singh is good but not good enough in Tests.

This Indian team has always won matches because of their batting and what we have seen on this tour is that batsmen just can't handle swing and bounce. This is a big question mark on their skills and technique. Most of the matches India has won off late has been on the flat pitches and when they were tried and tested in the Western conditions like South Africa and now in England they have struggled though they somehow managed to draw the series in South Africa.

In the bowling department, if BCCI or anyone related to India cricket think they can win a match with Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma as their spearhead bowlers, they need a reality check. They are the most inconsistent bowlers in the world cricket. in one session they seems to be unplayable and in the other they are thrashed all around the park. How has Sreesanth manged to be in the team is just beyond anyone's imagination. He is not a bowler to play at international stage. Period.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh's performance minus Zaheer Khan has been similar to Sreesanth and others. He has been struggling with his line and length and is not even confident to flight the delivery to the batsmen or take risks.

Praveen Kumar has been a bright light but he lacks the pace that could really trouble the batsmen.

Let's talk about Mr. Duncan Fletcher. First series against West Indies was not a vintage win, they just scrapped to a 1-0 win in the Test series against a team that has been struggling off-late. When Fletcher had a chance to prove himself at the biggest stage, he came up short. He is the same man who changed the fortunes for the England team in the past and even won Ashes series with them. But when he was appointed India's coach there were question marks over him?

Whether he is the right man to manage the World Champions and with the current form the answer is pretty simple, NO!