BOMBAY (AFP)
Zimbabwean cricket captain Stuart Carlisle said on Wednesday his team would try to follow England's tactics of applying pressure on India in the upcoming Test and one-day series.

"We will play positive cricket like the Englishmen did during their recent tour of India," Carlisle said after his team arrived to play two Tests and five one-day internationals. "We watched the series keenly and observed that the Englishmen came here as underdogs, but played positively to put the Indians under pressure."

England skipper Nasser Hussain also said before the one-day series against India last month his team would try to maintain pressure on the hosts and exploit their vulnerability in crunch situations. His tactics paid rich dividends as England squared the six-match series 3-3 after trailing 3-1 as India choked under pressure in the last two games.

Even Indian captain Sourav Ganguly conceded after the drawn series against England that his team's middle order was inexperienced and had to learn to handle the pressure.

"We too would like to catch India on the wrong-foot by never letting them settle down. We know the Indian middle order is a bit suspect," said Carlisle. "We would first like to go after the top order, which has world-class players like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, and then work our way through the middle order."

The Zimbabwean captain said his team was confident of coping with the Indian spin challenge on slow pitches. "We just came back from the tour of Sri Lanka where we found offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan a hard nut to crack," said Carlisle, whose team was whitewashed 3-0 by Sri Lanka last month.

"We know India has two quality spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, but many of our batsmen have played them quite well and we would like to do the same this time as well." P> Zimbabwe did reasonably well on their last Indian tour in 2000, with a prolific Andy Flower (540 runs) dominating the Indian spin in a two-Test series won 1-0 by the hosts.

Zimbabwean coach Geoff Marsh said the Test and one-day series against India would be tough, but his team was keen to perform better. "It is always a challenge to play in India," said Marsh, a former Australian opener.

"I have come here as a player and coach of the Australian team and now with this young side. I am looking forward to this challenge. We have some very talented guys and this tour will help them become tough cricketers."

Zimbabwe open their tour on Friday with a three-day game against a Board President's team at Vijaywada in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The first Test will be held at Nagpur from February 21 and the second at Delhi starting a week later. The one-dayers will be played at Faridabad (March 7), Mohali (March 10), Cochin (March 13), Hyderabad (March 16) and Guwahati (March 19).

Zimbabwean squad Stuart Carlisle (capt), Heath Streak, Alistair Campbell, Dion Ebrahim, Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Travis Friend, Trevor Gripper, Mpumelelo Mbangwa, Raymond Price, Gavin Rennie, Tatenda Taibu, Brighton Watambwa and Craig Wishart.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd