Left: England's Ryan Sidebottom bowls in the nets yesterday. Right: Sachin Tendulkar during practice at The Oval yesterday. - AP

LONDON (Reuters):

Captain Michael Vaughan warned his England team yesterday to refrain from swearing at their India opponents in the third and final Test starting at The Oval today.

England, who have not lost a home series since 2001, trail 1-0 after losing a bad-tempered second Test at Trent Bridge.

"I've looked back at the last game and I do think there were a couple of areas where we got close to stepping over the line," Vaughan told reporters. "Our position as international cricketers is to make sure we don't step over the line. (But) we still want to play in an intense and hard fashion.

"I don't want to see swearing on the pitch. I still want to see bowlers doing a little bit of gamesmanship and chirping. But swearing and an attack on a player, I think that's wrong.

"The (last) two games have been played very well, apart from one or two little incidents. You've known you've been in a Test match and that's what we want to see.

"I just don't want to see swearing on the pitch. None of us wants to see that. Swearing is a natural reaction but you don't want to see it at a bowler or back at a batsman."

Vaughan, who has never lost a home series as a player or captain, said England would probably field an unchanged team barring late injuries after Kevin Pietersen recovered from a virus infection.

Farewell to English soil

Meanwhile, India captain Rahul Dravid is putting a series win over England ahead of the probable farewell to English soil for himself and fellow senior players.

Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar (both 34), Saurav Ganguly (35) and leg-spinner Anil Kumble (36) are unlikely to play another Test match in England.

"I'm just thinking of focusing on playing a good Test match," Dravid told reporters yesterday. "I haven't thought about what it would mean(if we won) and that this is our last Test match (in England)."

Dravid, who scored 217 against England at The Oval in 2002, said he expected a result with good weather forecast throughout the five days.

Ultimately, he wants a performance similar to the second Test at Trent Bridge, when India won by seven wickets.

"We were really happy with the way we played at Trent Bridge, we did a lot of the basics well," Dravid said. "I've challenged the team to repeat what they did.

"The challenge for our team is to back up a good performance with another good performance. It takes a lot to win Test matches and it takes a lot more to win Test series."