Zimbabwe will pose an exciting challenge: Dravid
25 May 2001
With confidence gained from a spirited series win against Australia, a
determined Indian team embarked on a 46-day tour of Zimbabwe early on
Friday, raring to break a 15-year jinx of not winning a Test series
outside the subcontinent.
The team management comprising coach John Wright, vice-captain Rahul
Dravid - skipper Saurav Ganguly was to join the team later tonight -
and manager Chetan Chauhan was confident about winning the two-Test
series against Zimbabwe and the following triangular one-day
tournament with West Indies as the third team.
"The boys are aware that India has not won a series abroad in the past
15 years and they are brimming with confidence to break the jinx,"
Chauhan told reporters in Mumbai on Thursday. He said the performance
in the recent home series against Australia had given them "a much
needed boost". Ganguly could not attend the joint press conference as
he was held up in Kolkata due to "some personal reasons" and would
join the team just before their departure, according to Chauhan.
Dravid said the important thing was a good performance by the team and
the rest would take care of itself. "It is important to concentrate on
the basic processes without getting unduly excited over the result.
Our job is to play good cricket with a positive frame of mind and not
to get preoccupied with results", Dravid said.
Wright echoed his views, saying that he does not have a 'magic
formula' for the Indian cricket team to win a series abroad and
believes the players have to work on their basics to get a positive
result. "There is no magic formula in cricket. You have to do what is
required at a particular time and play to potential", said Wright.
"Execution of genuine play, bowling a good line and length and just
doing the basic things right is what all that is needed to win a match
or a series", Wright added.
Dravid said "Zimbabwe will pose an exciting challenge. They are a good
side and played a good series in India last year. They are a good unit
together". On India's failure to win a series on foreign soil for the
last 15 years, he said, "certainly the boys are aware of it but they
don't think about it. This time we would like to win the series and
turn a new page." About the conditioning camp held in Bangalore,
Dravid said it was of good quality and added, "the guys put in a lot
of hard work and surely there is an increase in their fitness level."
Asked which Zimbabwe players he considered a 'threat' to the Indian
team, Wright said "Andy Flower and Heath Streak might pose some threat
as both are world class players. However, there is no question of
fearing anybody." Commenting on the World Test Championships, both
Dravid and Wright said it was a 'good concept' and gave a chance for
every team to play each other.
© PTI