Shortly after setting foot on Caribbean soil, Indian captain Rahul Dravid cautioned his young guns not to make the mistake of taking the West Indies lightly, saying the opposition has the strength to topple the best in the business.
KINGSTON (Jamaica): Shortly after setting foot on Caribbean soil, Indian captain Rahul Dravid cautioned his young guns not to make the mistake of taking the West Indies lightly, saying the opposition has the strength to topple the best in the business.
Dravid heaped praise on the quality present in the West Indies line-up as he brought over his largely young but successful team for an arduous two-month tour of the Caribbean.
"Any team that has players of the quality of Lara, Sarwan, Gayle and Chanderpaul got to be a serious batting line-up. They have some good fast bowlers too," Dravid said soon after the Indian team's arrival here.
Brian Lara has played 13 Tests against India, scoring 791 with one century at 37.66. He has 794 runs in 31 one-day
matches. Chanderpaul has the best figures of 1280 runs against the Indians, hitting five centuries at 85.33 in 14 matches.
Gayle in eight matches has scored 366 runs while Sarwan has 455 runs in eight games.
"They are a very good team and we have been following their cricket. We expect good cricket against them," said, Dravid, whose status in world cricket bears little resemblance to his two previous trips of West Indies in 1997 and 2002.
Dravid first came over in 1997, barely a year old in international cricket and struggled with the disappointment of being ignored in one-day cricket. In 2002, he was burdened with the additional task of wicket-keeping in one-day cricket which many believed was a show of no-confidence from the then captain Sourav Ganguly.
Now he is master of all he surveys, a position he has acquired through his sheer merit and strength of character.
Dravid will have a key role in goading his young team but he expressed great confidence in their ability to come good in the Caribbean.
"We have some exciting young talent in the one-day team who are excited about playing in the West Indies. This tour would be a good experience for them.
"We really want to play in front of this great crowd, in front of people who love the game and love the sport.
"Leading on to some of the important tournaments later on, this will give us a lot of impetus."
The Indian skipper is aware of his team's drought here since it has not won a series in the Caribbean since 1971. He though wasn't unduly worried.
"We are not going to worry about history. We are just going to look at this series as a fresh one and then try and do the best we can."
The Indians have only won three of their 38 Test matches played in the Caribbean while losing 16 and draw 19.
The Indians will open their tour on Tuesday with a one-day practice match against Jamaica at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay, Jamaica's second city, west of the country.
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