Incontinence on the sub-continent goes with the territory for tourists. Past England trips of the Eastern regions have been more notable for Delhi belly, ducks and defeats than any semblance of a cricket team.

In 1993, Graham Gooch's backroom staff set up a soup kitchen in the dressing room after the skipper missed the Madras Test because of some dodgy prawns. Mike Gatting was also affected but probably ate all the soup. There was also an outbreak of gastric ghastliness in 2006, although for once Steve Harmison saw the positive side of a bad situation: "You can talk about the bugs and sickness, but you've got to come here with your eyes wide open and expect it to be hot." Great insight from the big man.

Things may have advanced somewhat since the Dad's Army approach applied by the Gooch/Keith Fletcher regime. Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss will know that it takes a special kind of skill set as well as a steel-like stomach to survive Pakistan and Indian tours. If you ask Andrew Flintoff, Dubai might be a little more Western in its savoury retreats than, say, the less salubrious delights of Colombo or Hyderabad. It might even be convenient for Ian Botham's mother-in-law, should she still be kicking around. For all of its uncertainties, the tour in the UAE represents another opportunity for Kevin Pietersen to finally prove that he can make big scores consistently in the heat and dust.

After the Lord Mayor's Show of his Test debut series in 2005, Pietersen's next venture was the ill-fated trip to Pakistan which England lost dismally by two Tests to nil, having gone there with designs to become the world's best. Pietersen had a modest tour, scoring one half-century and then one hundred in Faisalabad which was overshadowed by his mode of dismissal. Having got to his century with a six off Shoaib Akhtar, he tried to repeat the trick next ball and came unstuck in a haze of showmanship. This was to become an annoying trait over the years with huge scores at his mercy.

Perhaps the adventurous approach of the Ashes had carried over into a territory that obviously required more patience. This eternal struggle of the KP mindset will continue in the United Arab Emirates, which is a hardly a showpiece occasion compared with India versus Australia. He is quite possibly the most assiduous trainer in the team, but that doesn't change the fact that KP craves the limelight and performs better when more of the world is watching. In the Sri Lankan series of 2007, when England spent what seemed like an eternity chasing leather in the field, Pietersen was unable to notch up even a 50 for the first time in a Test series. The sub-continent sucked.

On the Captain Cook Bangladesh tour two years ago, he managed 99 in one knock but generally seemed out of sorts. This was the birth of the "vulnerable" Pietersen, where technical doubts and susceptibility to jobsworth left-arm spinners made him seems almost physically diminished. Nobody was really talking about "The Ego" as the go-to batsman anymore. His travails against Pakistan in the summer of 2010 on home turf were only partially cleared by a double century in the Ashes victory down under. Silly and ill-judged comments in the media showed that human frailty was becoming too much of a burden.

After two battling half-centuries against the Sri Lankans, the runs flowed again last year in the four Test series against India. It looks like the Surrey batsman has finally come to terms with being a batsman in the team rather than the batsman. He may have succumbed to the left arm "curse" again this week, but there is little sign of the torment that has bugged him over the previous two years of his Test career. Pietersen may just be ready to embrace the Subcontinent rather than try to dominate it. Times have changed.

Tim Ellis