Pitch factor puts England ahead - Harmison

Steve Harmison feels England will have a "slight advantage" in Saturday's crucial encounter against Australia at Jaipur as they're accustomed to the pitch that will be used. Asserting that he didn't look at the contest as a prelude to the Ashes, Harmison added that Australia's defeat last night wouldn't alter England's plans too much.

The game, which neither team can afford to lose, will be played on the same surface on which England crumbled for 125 against India. The curator at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium felt that the track wouldn't be as dry as it was the previous Saturday, adding that the Sri Lanka-Pakistan clash - when Pakistan chased 254 and won - could be used as a template.

Harmison, though, felt England would just have the edge. "I think it would be a slight advantage if we play on the same wicket," he said. "I don't know what the schedule is and what wicket we're playing on, but if we play on that wicket, we'll have a slight, slight advantage. Australia haven't played on it but at the end of the day they're good players and they can adapt to any surface. As I said, it's just a slight advantage."

While revealing he'd struggled to locate the channel that was showing the Australia-West Indies game, Harmison didn't want to read too much into the game. "We all know what their weaknesses are," he said, "we've played against them often enough, we've seen them on TV often enough. We've had two days' preparation, a day off yesterday, something you need to calm yourself after five days in a row."

Would England's tactics change after watching Australia? "Not really," he said, "I think a few field placements. I can't imagine we'll bowl any differently to Ponting, Gilchrist, Martyn than we planned before. Just because West Indies beat them yesterday, it won't change the way England performed. I think West Indies played well yesterday. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. Bangladesh beat Australia last summer and West Indies have looked a good, compact unit for a while now. And they played great last night. I think they won't be anymore fired up or we any less fired up when they come up against us on Saturday."

Harmison didn't want to be drawn into discussions about Ashes preludes - he preferred to stick to a simple "No" - but said his training was definitely geared towards the events in Brisbane on November 23. "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't [thinking of the Ashes]. I'm not going to sit here and talk bullshit about we haven't got one eye on the Ashes. Because we have. Everybody's got one eye on the Ashes, you have as well.

"Everybody's looking ahead to the big occasion. But we're here to do a job, here to win a competition and if there's any more spice into it then, whoever loses on Saturday goes out. I'd be lying to say we haven't got one eye on Australia on the 23rd November but we need to win this game to go forward in this competition. Hopefully we'll do it on Saturday."

But wasn't it the Twenty20 clash at the Rose Bowl that kicked off the whole Ashes campaign last time around? "As I've said before, the Twenty20 was the start of 10-12 weeks of hard cricket in England," he said. "It was the same environment, same pitches, same conditions. At the end of the day, you're playing in India, it's a one-off game and I imagine 15-20% of the players who'll play on Saturday will not be involved in Brisbane on the 23rd of November. They aren't in the Ashes Test squad.

"At the end of the day we've got 11 match-winners and that's what we realise. Any one of them on any given day can win a match for England. If any one of them puts up their hand and makes a match-winning contribution, we can end up beating Australia."