Mumbai: The key for England this week in Mumbai is mindset. They have to treat this match as if it is the first Test of the series. The England boys have just had a mid-tour break in Dubai, which was a wonderful move by the management.

I know having played with some of the senior players how challenging they find touring India so the mini-break should have put them in the right state to play more positive cricket and just be in a better mental space. They should feel refreshed, which is why this week is a chance to start again.

Mumbai should also bring out the best in England. Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city, the hotels and restaurants are excellent and the sense that this week is a big occasion should also help lift England after two poor Tests.

Mumbai provides great conditions for England because the pitch offers bounce. When you hit the ball in Mumbai you always get good value for your shots. You can hit sixes very easily, and spinners such as Ravi Ashwin do not like being hit. Four years ago we won in Mumbai and turned the series. I scored 186 and I am proud of that innings.

My mindset going into the match was the same as anywhere, to score runs, hit boundaries and play spin well, but I had failed in Ahmedabad in the first Test match and needed to work hard. In Ahmedabad, I went to the nets with Mushtaq Ahmad [then England spin-bowling coach] and worked for an hour. I did the same when we arrived in Mumbai until I started to get my feet moving properly. Once that happened I started to feel good. I hit the first ball of my innings off Harbhajan Singh for four and the rest just followed on.

We were lucky four years ago because we had good spin bowlers in Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar. Shane Warne always said the more bounce he had as a spinner the more he felt in the game. That is going to be true for the Indian spinners this week. The difference between now and four years ago is the Indian spinners have outbowled the England spinners.

I watched the last Test and while it was impressive to see Adil Rashid bowling a lot better, he is not someone who is going to worry the Indian batsmen too much. I can guarantee not one Indian batsman is going to go to bed the night before a Test match and have nightmares about facing one of the England spinners. But you can bet some of the England batsmen will be thinking, ‘Oh, we have to play Ashwin and Jadeja tomorrow’.

International cricket is all about being mentally strong enough to cope with those situations. It is all about your approach and the way you think about the game.

When you reach the top level your technique should be good enough, and you have scored runs to get in the team. It is about stepping up and how you adjust mentally.

The problem England have with Ashwin is that he is such a good one-day bowler as well so if you start to go after him in a Test match he retreats into One-day mode, sets in-out fields and gets you out in a different way. Ashwin is a bowler who does not like being hit for runs so for the batsman it is about having the confidence to take risks against him. This is where it becomes a mental battle. If you have failed against him in the previous two Tests are you going to be strong enough to take those risks against Ashwin? Unfortunately, you have to be able to overcome those doubts because eventually he will bowl you a good ball that gets you out and if you have been too timid, then he has won the battle. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja also bowl as a partnership. They give nothing away. They are accurate, spin the ball hard and bowl with pace. In Mumbai the ball spins big too. They will fancy this Test.

For the Indian batsmen, it is very different facing Rashid. He bowls too many bad balls even though he has improved a lot in this series. He releases the pressure. You know that every over or two there will be a release ball that you can hit for six or four.

With Ashwin that does not happen so you cannot just sit in, you have to make a play at him. When I played against Rashid in championship cricket I knew that every single over I was going to get a bad ball. I would block a couple, maybe get off strike a couple of times but then I would get a full toss or long hop that I would hit for six or four. It is the reason why England’s spinners are not building pressure like Monty and Swann did four years ago.

England have lost two Tests because the batters have been a let-down, and the spinners have been woeful. It is time to start again. They can do it, they can improve and Mumbai is a brilliant venue for them, but it will take a great mental effort to turn it around.

— The Telegraph Group Ltd, London 2016