Dhoni, Cook oozes with confidence
Hyderabad, Oct 13 (INN): Captains of both India and England teams, which play the first of five ODI matches at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday, are brimming with confidence. This is notwithstanding the fact that both have loads of youngsters in their ranks.
During pre-match interactions with the media on Thursday, Mahender Singh Dhoni and Alistair Cook oozed with confidence that they were battle-prepared.
Dhoni said although the team would miss the seniors, the playing XI would have players with proven abilities. He said the return of Gautam Gambhir was a big morale-booster. Stating that the trauma of the recent England series was done and over with, Dhoni singled out Ashwin for special praise.
Dhoni, however, said that the playing XI would be decided after he inspects the pitch early Friday. He said he would take a call on who among Gambhir and Suresh Raina will open with Parthiv Patel will be decided before the commencement of the match.
Cook admitted that unlike their easy romps at home, taking on India on home ground was a tough call. He said even though India would be without the injured senior players, it still remained a tough proposition on home soil.
"Our advantage is that the depth that we posses is relatively unknown to Indians. The Indians have an excellent track-record at home and this is where we will have to adapt ourselves," Cook said.
He said his team should not be discounted forthwith. Its chances of making a match of it remained high. "We have instilled a new sense of confidence. Right now, we have chalked out strategies that will help us to start winning overseas tours. We would like to conquer every top nation of their soil," Cook said.
Teams: India: M S Dhoni (Captain), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, A Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj Tiwary, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Varun Arun, Sreenath Arvind, R Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Rahul Sharma.
England: Alistair Cook (Captain), Craig Kieswetter, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara, Jonathan Bairstow, Graeme Swann, Samit Patel, Tim Bresnan, Steven Finn, Stuart Meaker, Chris Woakes, Scott Borthwick, Jose Buttler, Alex Hales.
News Posted: 13 October, 2011
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