November 17, 2007	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 06, 1428

SYDNEY, Nov 16: Rejecting former coach Greg Chappell’s view that several Indian superstars are well past their best, new Test captain Anil Kumble says his side’s vast experience is capable of breaking Australia’s stranglehold on world cricket.

Chappell had earlier publicly criticised the Indian selectors’ reluctance to embrace a look youth policy and warned that seniors’ era is over and need to be replaced by fresh bloods for the upcoming tour Down Under.

According to The Age newspaper, Kumble rated his side’s experience in Australian conditions as one of their main strengths which would help them give a tough fight to Ricky Ponting’s troops in the series starting next month.

“The way I like to look at it is that we did extremely well in Australia last time and in fact we had a chance to win in Sydney and we draw a lot of confidence from that,” Kumble said.

“I think gap is there, but it’s something for us to stop and we’ve done it in past. I see no reason why we can’t do it again with experience and quality in our side,” Kumble added.

The 37-year-old spinner, who took over the Test captaincy from state-mate Rahul Dravid, said he hoped to capitalise on vacuum created in the Australian side due to the retirements of top guns like Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn.

“Australia have always had good players but we can use that (the retirements) to our advantage,” he stated.

India begin their Australia tour with a warm-up match against Victoria on Dec 20. –Agencies