MUMBAI, Feb 17: India’s coach Greg Chappell says he wasn't surprised with Saurav Ganguly's remarkable comeback into the team, adding the timing of his exclusion, in Sept 2005, had allowed him to return in time for the World Cup.

Chappell admitted fielding remained a major worry ahead of India's World Cup campaign and said the side had to compensate for this with strong batting and bowling performances. “I said to him (Ganguly) in Zimbabwe 18 months or so ago, he has three more years left in his career,” Chappell said on Ganguly. “But he wasn't in the right place mentally to do that and needed to reassess. He's done that and there’s no reason why his career can't go on for some time.”

The return of Ganguly and several other seniors resulted in a flip-side: India go into the World Cup with ageing legs and a fielding handicap. “It is what it is,” said Chappell. “I can't change it. You can look at the positive side of it and say we've got more experience than anyone else. The downside is that we'll give away a bit in the field but hopefully we can more than make up for that with experience with the bat and ball.”

“We are going to concede runs in the field to the better teams. We knew that when we picked the squad. We can't afford to relax on that as there is going to be a lot of low-scoring, medium-scoring games, below 200s, below 300s is going to be norm.”

Chappell felt spin will play an important part in the World Cup, with the pitches expected to play on the slightly slower side. “We'll like to have five bowlers in every game but that's not necessarily going to be possible.

“I'm not worried as Tendulkar has shown how clever he can be with the ball. Sehwag is more than a competent off-spin bowler and Yuvraj played some important roles with the leather as well. So we have three better-than-part-time bowlers who can take fifth-bowler option,” Chappell opined. —Agencies