India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly called upon his players to strive for consistency at the start of the new season, which gets underway with a game against the UAE in the Asia Cup in Dambulla on Friday.
"Consistency is the key. That's one area where we really have to look up and maintain the winning streak. That's how we are going to remain a good side," Ganguly said, before joining in an intense practice session with his team on Thursday afternoon.
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He felt his side must carry forward the success of the last season to the current one since, for the first time in his stint as captain, he has a squad without injury worry.
"We are in full strength. We have never been at full strength for quite some time. It raises expectations for the players. We won tournaments when not everyone was fit. Now all of us fit and we would just have to keep winning."
The Indian captain said one of the off-shoots of a fit team is that it has bowlers who could get past the opposition line-up.
"It's good to have bowling options. That's the reason why we have started to win overseas. You have bowlers who win the games. Then there are batters who put up runs on the board. You have a choice to pick your bowling as well as your batting unit."
An overall fit squad raises competition for different slots, but Ganguly termed the development as healthy.
"It breeds healthy competition because they know they have to perform. That's the only way they could remain a part of the team."
He said the team's failure to win the Asia Cup in previous two attempts would spur his players to do well in this regional competition.
"There are a lot of Indian players who haven't won the Asia Cup and they want to do it this time around."
Ganguly was delighted his boys were able to bat fluently in the tour opener practice game on Wednesday.
"We had three match situations in Chennai and one here yesterday. So for most of the guys it is four games already played.
"Playing games has helped because it is different bowling in the nets than playing in the match."
He reaffirmed that there has been an active strategy in placing the line-up as India has done in recent past in One-Day Internationals.
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