Kent captain James Tredwell believes England have a real opportunity to stamp their authority on the world game in the coming months.

The 30 year old off spinner heads back off to India this evening as England play five One Day Internationals after successfully winning the Test Series 2-1 prior to Christmas along with drawing the two match Twenty 20 series.

From India, England will head straight to New Zealand in February for three T20’s and three ODi’s with the Test Series to follow in March.

Tredwell has been named for both the T20 and ODI squads to face New Zealand, whilst once again he will be the most senior spinner on the ODI tour to India with Graeme Swann rested.

Having been back in the country for just a week to catch up with family and friends for Christmas and New Year, Tredwell now faces the next two or possibly three months away from home with England and KSN caught up with him before he left to find out how the whole experience of being part of the Test squad that won the series in India had gone back in December:

“I always knew I was going out there as cover and it was always in the back of my mind that I wouldn’t play unless something happened injury wise. Like many tours I have been on before, I went over there looking to impress and keep my name in the selectors thoughts.” said Tredwell.

“It’s nice that they feel that if Swanny needs a rest, they can do that and I am the man that can fill his boots. If it means I play the odd Twenty 20 and One Day International here or there, then that’s better than nothing.”

“We knew India was a tough place to go and it’s a hard place to test your skills, so for the guys to go out there and play the cricket they did was really impressive.”

“The individual performances lead to great team success and hopefully that continues in the next few weeks.”

Trailing 1-0 in the Test Series before coming back to win 2-1, whilst levelling the T20 series after losing the first game showed real character by the whole England squad and Tredwell told KSN how he felt that was an important part of their ethos:

“I think that’s been the main thing about this team for the last couple of years. We’ve got some great individuals in the team, but the solidity of the group is something really impressive.”

“It means you can turn situations around when you are behind as you are a tight unit. It’s a huge achievement winning out there, but that’s been and gone now and we’ve now got to look at the next challenge.”

That next challenge sees England fly back to India for these five One Day Internationals with the hosts once again touted as favourites on home soil, but Tredwell believes if the side play to their potential, they could once again pull off a shock:

“India is a fantastic place to go and most of the lads will be going out there with their eyes wide open and looking to enjoy the experience.”

“Their side is packed full of high class players so it will be a massive achievement if we can go out there again and beat them and I think we are in a good place to do that with the personnel we’ve got.”

Tredwell has clocked up a fair few air miles in the past few months and will earn a few more in the next couple too, but he admitted it was nice to have the chance to get home to see family over Christmas:

“I’d been away for a shorter spell than some of the other lads, but was still as desperate to get back as having such a young family it was good to get home even if it was for just a week.”

“My young lad Jacob is getting to the age where he really appreciates it a bit more. It’s going to be tough to leave again today, but it’s something I’ve dreamed about my whole life, so you have to take the rough with the smooth.”

Should Tredwell be selected for the Test series in New Zealand too, that could see him away with England until the end of March and he admitted it would be good to see the family over there if that were to happen:

“I’d like to think that if I did get called up for the Tests that they’d be able to come over to New Zealand for a holiday. The England hierarchy are looking into resting people for some games so they’re not away from family for too long, so we will see what happens there.”

Being away with England for so long has given Tredwell little time to prepare for Kent’s new season since taking over the captaincy, but he is unconcerned about missing out on vital preparations back at Canterbury and plans to keep in touch with the team management whilst away:

“Most of the guys aren’t around at the moment anyway and some are out of the country. Some of the senior guys have been around to see, but some of the junior players are away playing in places such as Australia.”

“The impact of being away on those guys is probably relatively small. It’s more the planning side of things and putting things into place for pre-season and beyond, but we are lucky these days with technology that I will be able to liaise using things such as Skype.”

“Hopefully we will get most of the planning done before I get to New Zealand because of the time difference. Some of the guys from up north will start reporting back from this week on and they’ll all be working pretty hard throughout January.”

Being back in Kent for just a week has seen Tredwell pick up a cold and he told KSN how he is hoping to get some nice winter sun, but isn’t counting on it from what he’s been told:

“Apparently we are going to some of the coldest parts of India so we’ve got to take all our warm gear and it could get a bit chilly in the day/night matches.”

“It sounds like it could be a bit like England in April, but I’m hoping to get some sunshine as seeing the rain for the past week has been hard work!”

Keep up to date with Tredwell’s progress throughout the tours to India and New Zealand as we speak exclusively with the Kent captain here at KSN.