news details |
|
|
| No additional pressure on us: Dravid | | |
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 (London)
India's first Test against England is still a day away, but in London, its India Now.
That's the name of a three-month season celebrating London's links with India. Captain of the Indian cricket team Rahul Dravid was present at the launch.
His links with London go back to 1996 and his debut Test at Lords.
That is a memory that has been brought back into the limelight with this tour, which many consider the captain's last to England.
"I don't think there's any magic formula to get over inexperience other than to keep playing them and hoping that they get experience; the only way to get experience is by playing," said Rahul Dravid, the captain of the Indian team.
"We've had some injury concerns in that department, some of the more experienced bowlers have been injured or out of form so we have got some inexperienced players but we have Zaheer and Anil who have experience".
Dravid said "it's a great opportunity, someone's got to start somewhere and they've got potential and they've got talent and hopefully they'll be able to show it over the next three games."
India's last Test series win in England came over two decades ago, since then there has been just one Test win in the three tours that followed.
The last 12 months have had somewhat mixed fortunes for team India in the longer version of the game.
A series win in West Indies was followed by a test series defeat to South Africa add to the fact that this is being touted as the last english series for the big three, and the pressure seems to be high.
"Not really, I don't think we're concerned about whether it's our final tour or not the final tour," Dravid said.
"Who knows what will happen in the future? I don't think we'll see there's any additional pressure on us on this tour as there was on the last tour".
Certainly this batting line-up is being described as one of India's best ever.
England in fact has been a happy hunting ground for Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly in particular.
"There are lot of great cricketers and great batsmen in our team and you can't have played the amount of cricket that some of them have without knowing where your off stump is and we've got some great players and hopefully these three test matches will give us a chance to showcase our talents," Dravid said.
The three Test's will be followed by a seven-match ODI series and while India will no dobut be overwhelming favourites for the limited overs version of the game.
Its no real secret that the Test series is what will really separate the men from the boys.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
