Steve Harmison has become one of the best pundits in cricket, in part because he is unafraid to criticise even those he is closest to.

So, he had no qualms in taking his friend and former Durham team-mate Ben Stokes to task over what he sees as poor preparation for one of the toughest assignments in Test cricket.

Harmison cares passionately about English cricket and that is why he regrets saying England would ‘deserve’ to lose 5-0 in India during the latest episode of his excellent Following On podcast with Neil Manthorp.

He does not think they are giving themselves the best chance of pulling off a huge upset in India. The point is, while a cricketing genius like Stokes may not want or need any warm-up games or long preparation other than the nine days England plan to spend in Abu Dhabi, ‘one size,’ as Harmison puts it, ‘does not fit all’.

That is why he is concerned about players such as Jack Leach and Ollie Pope, who will be thrown in with no proper red-ball match practice after serious injuries.

As far as I’m concerned, Harmison is right. We saw what a lack of 50-over preparation did for England ahead of the World Cup and, while the Test methods of Stokes and Brendon McCullum worked on flat pitches in Pakistan last year, India is very different.

Yes, the modern calendar is so packed it is near impossible for players to have long periods of acclimatisation at the start of any tour. But one of the most pertinent points Harmison made is that England would never dream of arriving in Australia three days before the start of an Ashes series.

In 2010-11, England under Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower made a point of treating their three warm-up games as a mini-series, and went on to win three Ashes Tests by an innings.

And in 2012, when England last won in India, they also played three competitive warm-up games, drawing all of them but seeing all the side gaining proper match practice.

Stokes and McCullum have achieved success with very different ideas, and that is to be applauded. But while England’s love of golf and enjoying a healthy social life can be considered integral to their attacking approach, they could also be held against the players if things go wrong.

Nobody wants England to win in India more than Steve Harmison. He was just putting into words concerns that are shared by many.