'Play To Potential'

Former Indian captain and coach Ajit Wadekar saidIndian cricketers should not be unduly worried about the reaction of their fansif they do not do well but concentrate on playing to their potential during thetour of Pakistan.

Wadekar said the Indians would do "very well" as their confidence level was very high after their fine showing inAustralia.

"They will do very well. Their confidence level isvery high after their fine showing in Australia. I think what the players areworried about is the reaction of their fans back home if they don't dowell," he said.

"I think they are more concerned about the shortmemory and notorious behaviour of Indian fans than the partisan Pakistancrowd," Wadekar, one of the most successful captains, said.

"Even I had to face the brunt of it despiteleading the Indian team to their first ever overseas wins against the WestIndies and England as the memory of our fans is too short", he said.

Wadekar, who led a World XI to Pakistan in 1976, saidIndia should capitalise on their strong batting line-up against the hosts whoare in the rebuilding process.

"We are playing as an unit and with a very strongbatting line-up and some young bowlers to back them. I think we have a goodchance of winning a Test series abroad especially with Pakistan rebuilding theirteam," he said.

"I think more than their bowlers causing any problem, the main hurdle couldcome in the form of their coach Javed Miandad's comments, which are as deadly asShoaib Akhtar's beamers," Wadekar said in a lighter vein.

Wadekar said he did not think the security concern willplay on the Indian players' minds during the series as the President of Pakistanhimself has promised tight security. "Plus, the Indians will be with theirfamilies all the time for comfort off the field.

"Though I did not play in Pakistan as a member ofan Indian team, I think the Pakistanis always appreciate any team that playsgood cricket and the Indians should prepare themselves to play some good cricketduring the forthcoming tour and leave the security aspect to the Indiangovernment," he added.

"On the field the Indians will be oozing withconfidence as their batsmen complimented the bowlers with huge totalsagainst a much superior attack as the Aussies," he said.

"When I led the World XI, we played seven one-dayerswinning the series 4-3 and we did not face any crowd trouble. On the contrary wecould move around freely anywhere despite not having visas," the formersouthpaw said.

On the wickets, Wadekar, said they will be slow but theball will move in the air.

"The wickets will be somewhat like we find in England in the early part ofa Test match and then break to give assistance to the spinners. With the ballmoving a bit it should be ideal for young fast bowlers like Irfan Pathan andLakshmipathi Balaji, who are improving everyday, to have a go at theinexperienced Pakistan batting," Wadekar said.

Commenting on the absence of key bowlers includingoffie Harbhajan Singh and question marks over Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble, hesaid: "I think we have in-form bowlers like Ramesh Powar (Mumbaioff-spinner) to replace Harbhajan. This is the right time for Powar to get abreak as he is a gutsy player.

"He can be an useful batsman down the order, alongwith Kulamani Parida, who captain Saurav Ganguly has spoken very highly of.Seamer Amit Bhandari too was quite impressive in the one-dayers in Australia.

"I feel the young fast bowlers we saw during theAussie tour were not only talented but were also very aggressive and that is avery good sign. Pathan and Balaji have shown that they can hit the ball quitehard and if they can improve their batting a little bit then they can be veryuseful down the order along with players like Powar and Parida," he said.

"I wish the team good luck and may the playersbring laurels to the country by winning both the one-day as well as the Testseries.

As told to V. Veerakumar

PTI