Kevin Pietersen and his team will need to summon up the spirit of 2006 if the talking stops and Test cricket starts in Chennai next week.

Circumstances are completely different but enough players remain from England's last tour of India for a side already given no realistic chance of success to know that cricketing miracles can happen - if backed with a bit of self belief and a lot of hard graft.

Within a few days of the First Test of 2006, the previous summer's Ashes winners lost captain Michael Vaughan and fast bowler Simon Jones to serious injuries and opener Marcus Trescothick to a stress-related illness that ended his international career.

Yet, England, led by third-choice skipper Andrew Flintoff, enjoyed the better end of a draw in Nagpur before, to widespread amazement, coming back from defeat in Mohali to square the series with victory in Mumbai.

Alastair Cook, Monty Panesar, Owais Shah and Ian Blackwell made their debuts during that series against an Indian side missing only the then out-of-favour and now retired Sourav Ganguly from their long list of big names.

No wonder Aussie-beating coach Duncan Fletcher rated the Mumbai result as highly as any win achieved abroad during his eight-year reign.

This time, assuming the tour goes ahead, it will not be a shortage of tried and trusted personnel that England have to overcome.

Instead, they must try to rationalise the threat of terrorism, despite being surrounded by unprecedented levels of security in the wake of last week's attack on Mumbai, make up for time lost by their brief return home and then subdue an Indian outfit that beat Australia's Test team last month before thrashing Pietersen's powerless one-day side 5-0.

Perhaps the biggest unknown in all of this is how India's players will perform.

While England have had to concentrate on whether or not they should return to the subcontinent, Mahendra Dhoni's side will no doubt have spent the last few days in a state of horrified shock following the loss of nearly 200 lives in their homeland.

But if anything can help India to smile again it is cricket - and especially winning cricket.

For England to have any chance of being competitive, every second between now and next Thursday morning in Chennai will be vital.

And while Pietersen has done his bit to get the players to Abu Dhabi, coach Peter Moores needs to make sure that the only talk before they consider the final security report on Sunday is about cricket.

Pietersen spoke yesterday about drawing on events of 2001 when England went, with anything but a spring in their step, to India for a Test series that swiftly followed the 11 September attacks on the United States.

Two players, Andrew Caddick and Robert Croft, stayed at home because of safety concerns while the rest learned to live with the ever-present security that has now become part of the life of a touring international side.

While the odds do appear stacked against them, the 2006 experience should not be forgotten.

Pietersen, Flintoff, Jimmy Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Cook, Steve Harmison, Panesar, Matt Prior, Shah and Andrew Strauss all went, saw and if not exactly conquered then at least proved that no mission should be considered impossible before a ball has been bowled.

But for the awful events of last week, England would be in Baroda now, beginning a three-day warm-up game.

It was a match they needed, with Strauss, Panesar and Cook waiting to get back into competitive action and members of the one-day squad needing to recover from their white-ball walloping.

As it is, they must make do with batting and bowling against themselves, and members of the Performance Squad, in the Middle East.

As coach Moores conceded before setting off for Abu Dhabi, this is no way to prepare for Test cricket in India.