Indian captain Rahul Dravid is not worried by the lively track designed to suit the Pakistan pace attack for the second Test, saying his bowlers were also capable of capitalising on the conditions and giving the team a historic Test series triumph.
The pitch at the Gaddafi Stadium, venue for the second Test beginning on Monday, held no fear for the stylish right-handed batsman who said the wicket would be the same for both the teams.
"Our effort will be to play good cricket. The pitch looks firm and will have some carry. If the conditions suit their fast bowlers, our bowlers can also capitalise," Dravid told reporters on Sunday.
| |||||||||||
"We are not tensed. We are not looking five days ahead and have not started making castles in the air. We will go session by session and if we stick to the basics and play good cricket, we can make history," said a confident sounding Dravid, standing in for an unfit regular skipper Sourav Ganguly.
Admitting that the team will miss the services of paceman Zaheer Khan, who has been ruled out because of a muscle strain, Dravid said the team had a number of good back-up bowlers.
"Nehra is back in the squad. Agarkar is also a quality bowler and has been working hard in the nets. We did not play him in the last match because we thought he had not bowled enough hours after coming back after an injury.
"It is important to put the ball in the right areas. What is needed is to make the batsman play by bowling a good line and length consistently. If you make the batsman play, he is bound to make some mistake."
When reminded that he had not scored runs in the two Test matches that he captained, Dravid said, "I like to score runs, captain or not. But it will be nice to score runs as a captain."
Dravid said the playing eleven would be decided only after having another look at the track on Monday morning. The Indians have short-listed 13 players for the match, leaving out off spinner Ramesh Powar and middle order batsman Mohammad Kaif.
