India leave for a gruelling tour of England and Ireland on Wednesday with captain Rahul Dravid banking on the experience of his batting line-up to deliver the goods. "We have experience in the batting department, I am sure that is going to fire," Dravid told reporters Tuesday before the team's departure.
Dravid said that batting experience would balance a rather raw bowling attack. "Our young bowlers will be helped if the batsmen are able to put a big score on the board," the 34-year-old right-handed batsman said.
But Dravid emphasised there was more to winning than experience. "It is not all about experience. It is performance on the day which is going to count. England have a more experienced bowling attack than us but that is not going to give them an advantage straightaway.
"We need to raise the bar and put some big individual performances. If we can do that we will have a very good series," he said. India open against Ireland at Belfast on June 23 followed by three one-day internationals against South Africa at the same venue on June 26, 29 and July 1.
This will be followed by another one-dayer against Pakistan in Glasgow on July 3 to raise funds for charity. India will play three Test matches and seven one-dayers against England on the full tour, which runs from July 19-September 8.
THE 16-MAN TEAM FOR THE ENGLAND TEST SERIES:
Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar (vice-capt), Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthick, Gautam Gambhir, Sourav Ganguly, Venkatsai Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Anil Kumble, Ramesh Powar.
The 15-man team for one-day matches against Ireland, South Africa and Pakistan:
Rahul Dravid (capt), Mahendra Dhoni (vice-capt), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthick, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar.
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