The Indians will ride on confidence of the 4-1 victory scored against Sri Lanka in the ODI series early this year.
Though the Indian cricketers are coming out of a six-week break, they are confident of performing well in the Sri Lanka tri-series and the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa. The Indians will ride on confidence of the 4-1 victory scored against Sri Lanka in the ODI series early this year.
Though the absence of opener Virender Sehwag, a high quality player, due to injury can be a “huge loss”, the team has many talented players to achieve its aim of becoming the top team in the world, coach Gary Kirsten told said before the team’s departure to Sri Lanka by a chartered Air India flight via Bangalore on Wednesday.
Kirsten backed Sachin’s view of splitting the 50-over ODIs into two sessions of 25 overs each. “It is a good idea and another option. As it comes from a player of his stature, they (administrators) would be looking into it,” he said. “We have set our goals in terms of what we want to achieve in the next eight months, in the run-up to the 2011 World Cup preparation. If we continue hard in terms of training and if we give out our best then we have a chance of being up there (No.1 ODI team). One of our goals is to be the best cricket team in the world.
“We know we have to perform well as we continue our quest to be the best. We don’t harp on the results of the past, but think positively ahead. In our quest to be the best team we have to win from any situation or condition,” the former South African opening batsman said.
The return of Rahul Dravid, after a two-year hiatus from ODIs, and Sachin Tendulkar has added depth and balance to the batting line-up. “We have got a good batting line-up, which is quite flexible in the middle. We would like to mix it up during the series. We have got a very good run in one-day cricket. We have got good depth in the side, the younger players have proved themselves and we would like to give all players an opportunity. The return of Dravid, with the kind of experience that he has, will be of great help to the team.
We are happy to have leg spinner Amit Mishra, who has done very well in Tests, on board. The return of Shane Bond is a great asset to the New Zealand team. At the international level, we need to face competitive teams and a bowler of that pace is a great factor for the New Zealand team,” he said.
India play their first game against New Zealand on Friday, take on Lanka on Saturday. The final is scheduled for Monday. The team will leave for South Africa from Sri Lanka for the Champions Trophy scheduled to begin from September 22.
Squad: MS Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra and Abhishek Nayyar
Coach: Gary Kirsten; Fitness trainer: Ramji Srinivasan; Fielding coach: Robin Singh; Bowling coach: Venkatesh Prasad
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