Be ready for packed crowds and Tendulkar: Hussain

London, January 6: Warning his young side that the one-day series against India, starting on January 19, would be vastly different from the three-Test series, which England lost 0-1, skipper Nasser Hussain has asked the team to be ready to play in front of packed crowds and contain batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar.

"They are going to be playing in front of packed crowds in hostile situations - trying to contain Sachin Tendulkar, or facing Anil Kumble or Harbhajan Singh and needing six an over," Hussain wrote in the 'Sunday Telegraph' today.

Hussain described the series as a greater test than the limited overs series in Zimbabwe and said it would be won by team with the calmest heads. "The strength of the opposition and the match situations will be more like the World Cup."

The English captain pinned his hopes on leading batsman Graham Thorpe and said Thorpe needs to recapture the form.

"He needs to recapture the form he showed a year ago. He is the lynch-pin in Tests and One-Dayers and when he is perfo- rming well players can learn a lot from him," Hussain said.

"It's for the team to show that Zimbabwe tour was not one-off. It is also up to them to show they can close games successfully, and that is why it is so important that we have Thorpe back.

"England and India have had mad periods in one-day cricket over recent years, losing five wickets for next to nothing or suffering a bout of crazy run-outs. Like India, we have lost games we should have won, so this series will be won by the team with the calmest heads," he wrote.