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headlines national business sports cricket regional technology world travel autos health opinion | Ganguly confident of overseas victory 17.40 IST 05th May 2001 
Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly is confident that his team will win both the Test series and the limited-over triangular contest when they visit Zimbabwe later this month.India will play a two-match Test series and a limited-over tournament, in which West Indies will be the third side, in Zimbabwe from May end. ''I am sure the Indian team will continue with its form and return from Zimbabwe on a winning note,'' Ganguly told newspersons in Kolkata Friday. “The recent Test series victory against Australia has given the team a great deal of confidence. We have won the series at home and now we want to win one outside the country as well,” Ganguly said. The Indian captain sounded very confident about the India's batting prowess and termed it as ''one of the best in the world now.'' The Bengal Tiger hinted that he would prefer to have five seamers in the team as the wicket there would suit the pacemen better. ''Our fast bowlers will have an important role to play and they are expected to get some assistance from the conditions,'' he added. Ganguly pointed out that there would be some grass on the wickets in Zimbabwe, but it would be less than what they had against Bangladesh recently. ''If they keep more grass on the wicket, it won't help them much as our bowlers are also quite capable of extracting benefit out of it. But we still have to improve further in the bowling department,'' he added. Besides bowling which needed more attention, the Indian skipper also expressed concern about wicket-keeping. ''We are looking for a wicket-keeper who can bat well,'' the southpaw said. The Indian selectors have included three players in the list of probables -- Samir Dighe of Mumbai, Ajoy Ratra of Haryana and Deep Dasgupta of Bengal -- for wicket-keeper's slot in the team visiting Zimbabwe. However, Sourav admitted that it would not be easy to beat Zimbabwe at their home turf. ''We would decide about our strategy for the Zimbabwe tour when we all meet at Bangalore for the camp, like we did against Australia. We first ask all the players for their opinions. Then the seniors in the team would jointly discuss and chalk out the plan,'' he added. Ganguly said he had already discussed with team coach John Wright and vice-captain Rahul Dravid about the camp where special emphasis would be given on physical fitness and fielding. In the last series against the Aussies, the Indian captain did not do well in batting. To make it up, the Bengal southpaw is regularly spending a lot of time in gymnasium and nets to improve his physical fitness and batting and bowling prowess. Besides, he is also participating in the domestic and local tournaments to get the match practice. ''I want to keep myself fully fit and prepared for the task ahead,'' Ganguly said. -UNI |
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