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| February 4, 2006 | Saturday | Muharram 5, 1427 |
KARACHI: India motivated for ODIs despite Test defeat: Dravid: Teams in Peshawar
KARACHI, Feb 3: Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid said on Friday his players were geared up for the next week’s five-match, one-day series against Pakistan despite their Test loss.
“It was disappointing to lose the Test series but the players will not be short on motivation for the limited over matches. When it’s against Pakistan they are never short on it,” Dravid said during the ceremony to display the cup for the one-day series here.
After two high-scoring draws, Pakistan outclassed India by 341 runs in the third and final Test in Karachi on Wednesday to clinch the three-Test series 1-0, their first series win over their arch-rivals since 1987.
The five-match one-day series kicks off in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday.
Dravid, who took over as India captain last year, said his young one-day side is in its developing stages.
“It’s a young one-day side which we are trying to develop for the bigger events in future. We have learnt a lot from the Test series and hope that these lessons would help us,” said Dravid.
Reacting to the sharp criticism on the twin collapse of India’s famed batsmen in the Karachi Test, Dravid admitted they had failed.
“We didn’t bat well and lost four wickets early in both the innings, which was the key because it was important to play the new ball well and we failed twice in that,” he said.
India were bundled out for scores of 238 and 265 as young seamer Mohammad Asif and allrounder Abdul Razzaq shared 14 wickets between them to steer Pakistan to victory on the fourth day.
Dravid said he hoped a different batting combination would help in the one-day series.
“You have a different combination for the one-day matches and we have done well recently against Sri Lanka and South Africa with this team, so I am hopeful that we will play better cricket,” said Dravid, who was forced to open in the Tests.
India brought in batsman Mohammad Kaif, allrounder Suresh Raina, left-arm spinner Murali Kartik and paceman Sri Sreesanth in their 15-man one-day squad.
Former captain Sourav Ganguly, Parthiv Patel, Venkatsai Laxman, Anil Kumble and Wasim Jaffer have left for home after featuring in the Test squad.
Pakistan vice-captain Younis Khan said the home team will have to start afresh in the one-day series.
“I think one-day cricket is different and the team which plays well on the day of the match will carry the day,” said Younis, who led Pakistan in the absence of injured Inzamamul Haq in the third Test.
Inzamam, who missed the launch ceremony due to his father’s illness, has recovered from a back problem and was included in the 16-man Pakistan one-day squad.
“We are at full strength with Inzamam back in the team and have a lot of options available for team selection,” said Younis, who was declared man-of-the-Test series for his 553 runs in three matches.
The other matches in the one-day series are scheduled at Rawalpindi (Feb 11), Lahore (Feb 13), Multan (Feb 16) and Karachi (Feb 19).—AFP
Our Correspondent adds from Peshawar: Pakistan minus skipper Inzamamul Haq and Indian cricket teams flew into the city on Friday from Karachi to play the first ODI on Monday.
Talking to journalists at the airport Indian cricket team skipper Rahul Dravid said that the Indian team was quite young and they were used to the Peshawar pitch.
“We would try to win the first ODI to gain psychological advantage over the host team that could be helpful in winning the ODI series,” he said.
When he was asked about Peshawar weather, Dravid replied that they had played here and most of the players were familiar with the weather conditions.
Meanwhile the hide and seek between the cricket lovers and police over sale of tickets continued on second day.
Throughout the day hundreds of cricket fans seeking tickets marched across the main roads of Peshawar and criticized PCB and local administration for creating artificial shortage of the match tickets.
They alleged that the PCB has adopted step motherly attitude towards Peshawar, and against its status of provincial metropolis.
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