I want to give some pain back to England: Raina

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After a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of England last year in their backyard, it will be payback time when India take on the English side in the four-Test series starting at Ahmedabad next month, said middle-order batsman Suresh Raina here on Monday.

"I was there in England and I feel the pain of losing that series 0-4. I want to give some of that pain back," said the Uttar Pradesh batsman, who would be leading India 'A' against the tourists in a three-day warm-up game at the Cricket Club of India here from Tuesday.

Raina was of the opinion that the use of SG Test balls in the forthcoming series would be helpful to Indian seamers. "There is a big difference in the SG Test and Duke balls. We have the bowlers who know how to get the SG Test ball to reverse swing like Zak (Zaheer Khan) and Umesh Yadav. It'll be important how to handle the SG Test ball in humid cities like Kolkata and Mumbai.

"We also have (Ravidhandran) Ashwin and (Pragyan) Ojha who have been amazing. The England team has good seamers like (Steve) Finn, (Stuart) Broad, (James) Anderson and it depends on how they can handle the SG Test ball," Raina insisted.

While the retirement of Andrew Strauss was a blow to England, the return of Kevin Pietersen into their ranks after his patch-up with other team members was a big boost to the tourists' hopes, said Raina.

"Yes, that is (Strauss's retirement) a loss, but they have a huge positive in the form of KP's return. He wasn't there earlier, but now he's back and that's a big positive for them."

The 25-year-old left-handed batsman, who is fighting for the lone middle order spot in the Indian Test side with his "role model" Yuvraj Singh, said it was up to the selectors to fill the No. 6 slot.