 If the tour resumes, Moores' team will play Tests in Chennai and Mohali
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England coach Peter Moores concedes his side's preparation for the Test series in India has not been ideal but insists they can produce a strong performance.
The squad fly to Abu Dhabi on Thursday and will await security reports before travelling to India for the first of two Tests, in Chennai from 11 December.
"Realistically the time is not long enough," Moores told BBC Radio 4.
"But we've got to get ourselves as a squad of management and players ready to play and put on a decent show."
At 1100 GMT, captain Kevin Pietersen, managing director of English cricket Hugh Morris and Professional Cricketers' Association chief executive Sean Morris are to address the media at a news conference at Heathrow.
A 22-man party is scheduled to arrive in Abu Dhabi at about 0300 local time on Friday.
They will have two full practice sessions on Saturday and Sunday before potentially making the trip to India on Monday 8 December.
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.
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Things like this often pull teams tighter together and we hope to give it our best shot in the two Test matches
Peter Moores
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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 a country, 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 time-frame 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 misses 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," Moores added.
"We need to give the batsmen some decent time in the middle to get the best practice they can.
"Everyone's 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, re-focus and play cricket.
"The (security) situation looks positive and everyone's 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), RJ Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), 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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