'Indian' troops ready for the fight against Lankans and Proteas

BANGALORE: Hours before leaving for the tri-series in Sri Lanka (also involving South Africa), Indian captain Rahul Dravid said his young team was well-prepared to reverse its dismal record in the island.

Dravid said his teammates had worked hard on some of the problem areas which should stand them in good stead for the series beginning on Monday. “It’s a great opportunity for us to go to a place where we have not done well. We have worked hard and we would like to get better there,” he said. “This is an important series as we will play against two good teams.” The Indian captain did add that, on current form, hosts Sri lanka would be a big threat. “Sri Lanka is playing well. They even play better at home. So we have to play well there,” he added.

He also laid emphasis on the importance of playing to potential. “Strategy will be known on the match day. But, it is important to play according to the potential. All the important things start after the beginning of the match. Not things like who will open, who are in the playing XI and who won the toss,” he said.

Dravid was tight-lipped about the opening combination as well. “A lot of players have opened earlier. Sachin, Dhoni, Viru and myself have opened on different occasions. So it is not an issue who plays up the order.” One of the things they discussed during the cricket skills camp was how to make the best use of the middle overs while batting. “We talked about batting in the middle overs on slow wickets, how to create best chance for scoring a lot of runs in that part of the match.”

He said the team needed to improve consistently and do better against all oppositions. “We need to keep doing better. We need to play better against all oppositions in all situations. That’s what you play cricket for,” he said.

Coach Greg Chappell said the experience of playing on slow wickets in the West Indies would come handy during the tri-series. “We played on some slow wickets in West Indies. And in Sri Lanka the wickets would be similar. It is about putting pressure on the opponents and resisting pressure,” he said.

Chappell expressed hope that the innovative training the players were put through during the conditioning camp would benefit them in the long run.

“You should not expect a miracle. They did different activities and met with many challenges which may help them. Cricket itself is a problem solving exercise,” he said. About the last trip to Sri Lanka, Chappell said: “I took a different team then. We have shown improvement since then and now. The focus of the boys will definitely help us to do well.”