Pietersen praises collective move
 If the tour resumes, Moores' team will play Tests in Chennai and Mohali |
England captain Kevin Pietersen insists he did not have to persuade any of his 15-man squad to fly back to India following the Mumbai terrorist attack.
Before boarding a flight to England's holding camp in Abu Dhabi, he added that if necessary there would be a collective decision to come home.
The first of two Tests is scheduled to take place in Chennai from 11 December.
Pietersen said: "It's fantastic the guys want to go there to rub shoulders together with India at a time of need."
Earlier, coach Peter Moores conceded his side's preparation for the Test series in India had not been ideal but insisted they could produce a strong performance.
Once they have reached Abu Dhabi, the squad will await security reports before travelling to India on Monday.
Meanwhile, Indian airports were put on high alert on Thursday following warnings of possible airborne attacks. Security was stepped up at city airports across the country, including the one in Chennai.
Indian Air Chief Marshal Fali Major said: "This is based on a warning which has been received by the government and we are prepared as usual."
A 22-man party is scheduled to arrive in Abu Dhabi at about 0300 local time on Friday.
The hastily-arranged camp will include two full practice sessions on Saturday and Sunday before a potential trip to India on Monday.
Another two sessions would take place in Chennai but there is no time for a warm-up match before facing world cricket's in-form nation.
 | Things like this often pull teams tighter together and we hope to give it our best shot in the two Test matches Peter Moores |
Mahendra Dhoni's men were beating England 5-0 before the seven-match one-day series was abandoned and they earned a comprehensive 2-0 home victory over Australia in the recent Test series.
England have not played Test cricket since beating South Africa at The Oval on 11 August, although they lost the series 2-1.
"Our preparations are going to be compromised in many ways through circumstances," said Moores. "We're in Abu Dhabi, where we're not going to play.
"The facilities, I think, are going to be okay but we haven't had a chance to check them out, which we normally would, and the timeframe is very short.
"We haven't played Test match cricket now for three-and-a-half months, that's a long time. So we've got a lot of work to do to get mentally in the right place and also physically and technically ready to go."
Ryan Sidebottom will miss the tour after failing to recover from a side strain picked up during the abandoned one-day series.
Fellow seamer Stuart Broad has stayed behind to receive treatment for a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the first Test but will join up with the squad in Chennai, where his fitness will be reviewed ahead of the second match in Mohali from 19 December.
"Hopefully [there will be a definitive decision on the tour] on 7 December," said Moores. "We're due to fly out to India on 8 December provided all the security checks come through ok.
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"We can't really go any later than that because it gives us two days of preparation before the first Test match.
"It's going to come round very quickly and we're going to have to work very hard to make sure we're ready to go."
Nine of the 22 players come from the performance squad and, after England's three-day warm-up match in Baroda was cancelled, they will help prepare the Test side for competitive action.
"We'll have a bowling camp in Abu Dhabi and there will be 10 seamers and some spinners, who we can use to help us practice," added Moores.
"We need to give the batsmen some decent time in the middle to get the best practice they can.
"Everyone has gone away, had a chance to see their families, things have settled down a little bit and we have a chance now to go back, refocus and play cricket.
"The [security] situation looks positive and everyone has just got to assume we're going to play and prepare in that manner.
"Things like this often pull teams tighter together and we hope to give it our best shot in the two Test matches."
England squad for the two-Test tour of India:
KP Pietersen (capt, Hampshire), TR Ambrose (wkt, Warwickshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), IR Bell (Warwickshire), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), PD Collingwood (Durham), AN Cook (Essex), A Flintoff (Lancashire), SJ Harmison (Durham), MS Panesar (Northants), MJ Prior (wkt, Sussex), OA Shah (Middlesex), AJ Strauss (Middlesex), GP Swann (Nottinghamshire).
Performance squad: RS Bopara (Essex), MA Davies (Durham), RH Joseph (Kent), A Khan (Kent), SI Mahmood (Lancashire), SR Patel (Nottinghamshire), LE Plunkett (Durham), OP Rayner (Sussex), A Richardson (Middlesex).
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