January 7, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 6, 1426

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LAHORE, Jan 6:Indian captain Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell claimed that the forthcoming series against Pakistan would be a challenge for both the teams.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, before the start of the 46-day tour, Dravid stressed that as captain he considered every day and every match of his career a challenge thus the series was also a challenge. “We will try to play to our full potential considering the series a new challenge and will fight to improve our Test ranking,” Dravid said.

Chappell also termed the series a great challenge for both the teams. “No doubt the series is a great challenge for both the teams since a lot of people in the cricketing world are focusing their eyes on it,” the former great Australian batsman said. Chappell did not agree when asked if he had any differences with Saurav Ganguly. “I have no differences with any player including Ganguly and all the players are equal to me. We had some differences in the past but since Ganguly is part of the team it means there are no differences now,” he said.

Chappell pointed out that he did not consider any player a trump card and added if his team played with unity and according to plan that would be the real trump card.

The Indian skipper specified that Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq was a seasoned player but added he was not the only threat for his team as the other batsmen were also capable of giving tough time.

“I do not consider Inzamam who performed superbly in the last one year since he has been a world class player for the past 15 years, as the only major threat, to be focused by the Indian bowlers, as they also have Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and Salman Butt capable of giving us a tough time,” he said.

Dravid also set aside Pakistan’s pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar as the only challenging bowler for his team. “Akhtar is a good bowler but our players will have to face all bowlers because they are also good,” he said.

The Indian captain said that if Pakistan had a good lot of bowlers he also had good batsmen to face them. Similarly his bowlers were able to bowl out Pakistani batsmen.

When informed that Inzamam had declared Indian team as favourites for the series, Dravid remarked that such kind of statements prior to the series had always been made for the press and the real thing was how the boys performed on the given day.

Dravid said that he was not worried about the form of great batsman Sachin Tendulkar. “Tendulkar hit a century in the home series against Sri Lanka and his overall performance was good and I hope he will play his due role against Pakistan,” he said.

The captain said that he was also not worried about pitches as he had a good lot of spin and fast bowlers.

Dravid was in favour of competition between Pakistan and India on the pattern of Ashes series (England and Australia). “I think both the cricket boards should make a format like that of Ashes according to which a country hosts the other after every four years,”he said.

But Dravid added that it did not mean that coming series had no charm for him because of a lot of cricket between the two countries. “It may have less importance for the people because of too much cricket but as far as players are concerned every match is important for them,” he said.

He said that like the last tour (2003-04) his team would try to win hearts of Pakistanis through cricket. Meanwhile, India will play Pakistan ‘A’ in three-day practice match at Bagh-i-Jinnah from Saturday.