Recalled left-arm West Indian paceman Pedro Collins warned Rahul Dravid, saying he was the 'marked' man for his team and the visiting Indian captain would do well by not taking him lightly.
"He is one of the best players in the team and kind of a marked man for us. If you get him early, you can put a lot of pressure on the rest," said Collins, brought in to replace an injured Fidel Edwards for the second cricket Test starting in St. Lucia on Saturday.
"I look forward to get a chance to bowl and surprise him," said Collins, known to take the best batsman of the other team out of the equation.
But it does not seem a fair challenge knowing Dravid has 8664 runs from 101 Tests at 57.76 and Collins has only a smattering of Tests in nearly eight years of his international career.
In 2002, he played three Tests against India and got Sachin Tendulkar out in all of them, twice for ducks.
When England toured the Caribbean in 2004, he claimed Michael Vaughan twice in three Tests and again in the first Test in Lord's three months later. His last two Tests were against South Africa last year and he got Herschelle Gibbs in both of them.
The legend in Caribbean cricket is that whenever Collins turned up for Barbados against Trinidad, he nearly always got a certain Brian Lara out.
Injuries and comebacks has been the theme in Collins' career, which started in 1999 and is still only 29-matches-old.
"I have four of five years of international cricket to make up (for lost opportunities). I am now 30," said Collins during the nets yesterday.
| |||||||||||
"He spoke at the airport and told me just to watch my line and stuff since they (Indians) are very difficult batsmen," he said.
But line and length has never been an issue with Collins who can frustrate the batsmen with his accuracy. However, in the present West Indian line-up, he hopes to bring his experience to good use.
"There are not too many quick wickets in the Caribbean, or for that matter in world cricket. But line and length is an area where I am good at.
"The pitch here in the middle is not one of the quickest of pitches and requires a lot of hard work."
Collins has an added incentive for the second Test. After 29 games, he is just four short of raising 100 Test victims in his career. It would be a good reward for the utility man of West Indies cricket.