London, Aug 28 (IANS): England spinner Graeme Swann admits he had a relatively easy summer, when India were whitewashed 4-0 in the Test series.
"If you take The Oval game out of it, I've had my easiest summer ever. I've just stood at second slip watching Jimmy Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Stuart Broad take all the wickets," Swann was quoted as saying by The Mirror.
But Swann knows that he will have a tough time in the tough series coming up over the next 18 months.
"I know I'll be looked upon as the main weapon in the sub-continent and be expected to take the wickets. I know I've got a lot of hard work to do in Abu Dhabi against Pakistan and then in Sri Lanka and India.
"In Sri Lanka, a spinner has to do all the donkey's work. Seamers just can't do it. After four or five overs they are cooked. It's the heat. Sri Lanka is the hardest place to get wickets, but I know I can bowl well there. It'll be a litmus test for the team. It's been a phenomenal two years for England. I have to pinch myself sometimes," he said.
Swann said England, who are now the World No.1 Test team, can be compared to the invincible West Indies team of the 1970s and the Australian team of the mid-1990s only if they do well in the sub-continent.
"However, if we want to be as dominant as the West Indies team of the 1970s and 1980s, and the Aussies from the mid-1990s, then we have to do well in the sub-continent," he said.