Indian captain Rahul Dravid on Sunday backed Sachin Tendulkar to bounce back from his form slump and also expressed confidence in his side to rise to the challenge of facing Pakistan in the one-day series beginning in Peshawar on Monday.
Seeking to put up a bold face, the Indian captain said there is no "extra pressure" on his team to perform well in the one-dayers in the wake of the defeat in the Test series.
"We are under no extra pressure. It's the normal pressure or anxiety to perform well which is good. We know Pakistan's recent performance against us [8 wins in 10 matches] has been good. But statistics don't count much as in one-day cricket the team that performs well on that day will win," Dravid told reporters.
"We do respect the Pakistan team but we also have a young, good side. We are here to play good cricket, learn a few things along the way. It is sort of a learning curve that will serve us well in the future," the Indian captain said.
Dravid said Tendulkar, who has triggered off a debate following his recent form slump, will definitely bounce back in the one-day series.
"Sachin will bounce back. He and Sourav Ganguly have played enough cricket to know these things do happen. When we do not do well there are brickbats and there are praises sky-high when we do well. It's all in the extremes and all of us know how to handle these vagaries," said Dravid.
The Indian captain said that Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag had done well as openers in ODIs and they would continue to do so though the team also had the option of using Gautam Gambhir in the slot.
Dravid said his team has enough experience to get adjusted to the one-day mode even without playing a warm-up game.
The Indian team had opted for an open practice session on Sunday, simulating a match situation and Dravid said this was done to allow the players to get a close feel of match conditions.
Dravid admitted that in one-day cricket in the sub-continent, the bowlers are under great pressure.
"There is certainly an added pressure on the bowlers, but we have to be realistic in what targets to set for them. The team that bowls well in these conditions would obviously have an advantage."
Dravid said the strategy vis-a-vis the batting positions of "floaters" like wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar would continue as in the series against Sri Lanka and South Africa when the first two were at times promoted up the order to number three slot.
"It's an option to use the floaters. It could be Pathan or Dhoni or even Agarkar, depending on the situations like we did against Sri Lanka and South Africa," he said.
Dravid is also in favour of the Supersub being named after the toss instead of before it, a view supported by his Pakistan counterpart Inzamam-ul-Haq.
"It would be better if the Supersub is named after the toss. But anyway the ICC would ask for our views after the ten-month period of experimentation".
But Dravid said he is not in favour of using an all rounder as a Supersub, preferring to use such a player in the first eleven itself.
Asked about the four new additions to the squad -- Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, S Sreesanth and Murali Kartik -- Dravid said they had played domestic cricket and are match fit.
"They have done quite well in domestic cricket. Just as we don't want to see people [from the team] going back, we are happy to see new faces too," he said.
Dravid was ecstatic about the team's visit to the famous Khyber Pass, a drive of 45 minutes from this North-West Frontier province city.
"It was a great experience to go along the same way on which so many thousands have travelled on horse back and on foot for hundreds of years. We went up to the last Pakistan border post from where the Afghanistan border could be seen. It was a good outing for the boys and a break from the routine of hotel to ground and back," Dravid said.
