India could not have had a better warm up than the two handsome victories, against Sri Lanka and Australia, in the run-up to the event. It certainly would have lifted their morale, more so the way Dinesh Karthik scored tons in both the games and the form shown by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

India, on their last trip to the British Isles, failed to win even a single match, losing the Test series 0-4 and the One-dayers 0-3.