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Southampton, August 20: India will retain the
tried and tested opening combination of Sachin Tendulkar and
Sourav Ganguly while upgrading Yuvraj singh to number four in
the first one-dayer against England tomorrow, said captain Rahul
Dravid. "Sachin and Sourav did really well in Ireland and we'll
probably stick with them," Dravid said on the eve of the
day-night match at Rose Bowl. "Yuvraj will get a lot of
opportunity (at number four) in this series. He is an exciting
one-day player and this series will be better for his
development and also for the team.
"During the course of the series, he will be
given opportunities to bat a lot more overs and he can show he
can win matches on his own," he said. Dravid defended his
bowlers, who conceded as many as 296 runs in the warm-up match
against England Lions last week. "I think it's about switching
back from Test mode to one-day mode. We have spoken about it
from a bowler's perspective about the lengths we need to bowl,"
Dravid said.
"It will be good to see the way people are
going to approach and challenge us. Even from batsman point of
view, we have discussed certain shots in the last couple of
meetings. But the implementation is important." Asked if there
will be a lot of pressure on Zaheer Khan and R P Singh after
their success in the Test series, Dravid said pressure was part
and parcel of international cricket. "There's pressure on
everybody in international cricket. People are put under the gun
a lot, but you need to stand up. RP hasn't played a lot of
cricket before the last three months. He's keen to establish
himself in the one-day game." Dravid also said his team had
moved on from the horrors of its World Cup defeat and had new
challenges to respond to in the seven-match series.
"We were obviously disappointed with our
performance in the World Cup, but that's over. We've moved on
from that," he said. "This group of players have new challenges,
new things to achieve. There are lessons to be learnt and we've
moved on. There is a lot of one-day cricket to be played from
here on and we need to keep getting better." He acknowledged
that England would benefit from the presence of all-rounder
Andrew Flintoff who will be playing his first one-dayer in
England in two years. "It's good to play against a player of his
quality. He brings a lot to England with his skills with both
bat and ball.
With Flintoff and (Ravi) Bopara, there's a
much better look to England. You know there's a lot more depth
and flexibility. Give you more options. "People like Flintoff
give you more options. Players like that are critical. We want
to be tested against the best and Andrew is one of them. "He's
someone who will provide energy, confidence. With such skill and
ability in your side, it makes a difference." Although the
Indian skipper wasn't too keen to discuss retirement, he said
that four years was a long time to be thinking about playing the
next World Cup. "You never know, it's hard to predict. A lot
depends on your form and fitness. We just got to focus on this
series.
"I'm sure during the course of the year or so
there will be opportunity for other players to play more games.
Already in the 20-20 three of us (Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly)
aren't playing. It's an opportunity to bring on other young
players. "It's too early to say but the game is getting younger.
I don't want to talk about retirement but I know four years is a
long time in international cricket." (Agencies)
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