NAGPUR (AFP)
Andy Flower sounded a warning to India ahead of Thursday's first Test, saying he was hopeful of returning to his big-scoring ways.

Flower scored 540 runs in two Tests on Zimbabwe's last tour of India in 2000, despite combining the roles of batsman and wicketkeeper. His form fell away on the recent tour of Sri Lanka, however, where he managed just 80 runs in six Test innings.

"I hope to regain batting form in India," Flower said. "The tracks here are good for batting, even though spin and reverse-swing might make things tricky."

Zimbabwean captain Stuart Carlisle said that the wicketkeeping duties would be handed to Tatenda Taibu, in a bid to get Flower among the runs again.

"[Flower] played very well last time and I hope he will do the same this time as well," said Carlisle. "I only hope our top-order batsmen get runs so that we can put pressure on the Indian batsmen. The pitch looks good for batting and we would like to bat first."

Flower struck form in his very first match of the current tour, scoring 94 in a drawn game at Vijayawada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

"It was important for me score a few runs, since I did not have a very good tour of Sri Lanka," said Flower, who has scored 4,552 runs in 59 Tests, with 12 centuries.

"I relish batting on Indian wickets. It encourages me to experiment and hence I was prompted to try the reverse-sweep," said Flower.

Sourav Ganguly, under pressure as India captain because of his poor batting form, said Flower would not find it easy.

"Our spinners [Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble] have been bowling well," said Ganguly, who has scored just three half-centuries in his last 27 Test innings. "We now have a stronger side than the one that played Zimbabwe last time."

India (from) 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Rahul Dravid, 3 Sachin Tendulkar, 4 Venkatsai Laxman, 5 Shiv Sunder Das, 6 Virender Sehwag, 7 Anil Kumble, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Javagal Srinath, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Tinu Yohannan, 12 Deep Dasgupta (wk), 13 Sanjay Bangar, 14 Sarandeep Singh

Zimbabwe (from) 1 Stuart Carlisle (capt), 2 Heath Streak, 3 Alistair Campbell, 4 Dion Ebrahim, 5 Andy Flower, 6 Grant Flower, 7 Travis Friend, 8 Trevor Gripper, 9 Mpumelelo Mbangwa, 10 Raymond Price, 11 Gavin Rennie, 12 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 13 Brighton Watambwa, 14 Craig Wishart

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd