A grim-faced Sourav Ganguly conceded that India's World Cup batting is facing a crisis of confidence but stressed on Wednesday there is no need to panic.
India suffered a batting embarrassment in their opening Group A game against unfancied The Netherlands, being dismissed for 204 before their bowlers restored order to seal a 68-run victory.
"The problems are probably due to lack of confidence because of the number of low innings scores in New Zealand," said Ganguly, referring to India's recent Test and one-day defeats on seaming pitches in New Zealand.
"But there is no need for us to panic. We need to work on our batting and the boys simply have to score runs."
Only Sachin Tendulkar managed to pass fifty on Wednesday, top-scoring with 52 and moving ahead of former Pakistan batsman Javed Miandad's World Cup career total of 1,083 runs in one-day internationals when he had reached 25.
India's premier batsman fell to the one ball of the innings to really misbehave, gloving a rearing delivery to wicketkeeper Jeroen Smits but, by then, Ganguly and Virender Sehwag had already departed cheaply.
"We got 204 today, but it doesn't mean we can't get 260 or even more against Australia," said Ganguly. "We are one of the teams to have beaten them recently."
India, who take on Australia at Centurion in their next group match on Saturday, last met the defending champions in April 2001, losing a five-match series at home 3-2.
Ganguly was delighted Tendulkar is beginning to regain his touch after missing 11 games in a row recently due to injuries, the latest being an ankle strain in the nets at the end of last year.
He was also encouraged by Yuvraj Singh (37) and Dinesh Mongia (42), who put on 55 for the sixth wicket, the best partnership of the innings.
