Coach of the Under -19 Indian cricket team Robin Singh on Tuesday said his boys were not under any pressure while playing in the four-nation Videocon Asian Under-19 limited overs tournament in Pakistan.
There was "absolutely no pressure" on his boys as all of them just want to go and play good cricket," said Singh on the eve of the departure of the team to Pakistan.
"In fact most of them don't even know that an Indian team is going to Pakistan after a lapse of six years and the situation suits me quite well as the only thing on the boys' mind is to go and play cricket", he added.
When asked about the chances of his team doing well in Pakistan, Singh said "we are going there to win and I personally don't believe that any team can go on an important tour without having the desire to win".
When asked about his plan of action as all the other teams - Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - were relatively unknown, Singh said "sometimes it is good not to know the strength and weaknesses of your opponents. My plan is always based on our strength and not on our opponent's strength".
"If you start thinking too much about your opposition then you can't put your ideas to work and the boys just want to play good cricket and win", he added.
Speaking about the composition of the team, Singh said most of the boys in the team are 'dual purpose' players and are ideal for the shorter version of the game.
The skipper of the 14-member squad, Ambatti Rayudu was all praise for his coach's efforts to make the team members feel at home after just three-days of nets at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
"Robin Singh has been a great help. He is very patient and understanding while making his point to the boys and in turn the boys are very eager to learn from an experienced player like Singh", he added.
When asked about the players' morale, Rayudu said "the morale of the boys was very high as most of them have already represented their respective states in first class cricket".
"Playing first class cricket has given us lot of confidence and the boys are eager to do well in Pakistan as they know that this is the stepping stone for their future career as India players", he added.
The team: A T Rayudu (capt), Robin Utappa, Shivkant Shukla, Sahil Kukreja, Sunny Singh, Avinash Yadav, V R V Singh, Suresh Raina, Rakesh Solanki, Raiphi Gomez, Dinesh Karthik (vice-captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and Saurav Sarkar.
Coach: Robin Singh.
Physio: Kinjal Suratwala.
Manager: Amitabh Choudhary.
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