INDIA’S new coach Duncan Fletcher, who guided England to their 2005 Ashes triumph, said he was looking forward to developing the young talent in an untried side who will tour West Indies this month.
Suresh Raina will lead the World Cup champions in five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 match in the absence of regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior players Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan.
“While I was in England, I started the rotation policy resting senior guys. I was heavily criticised by the English authorities,” the 62-year-old Zimbabwean told a pre-departure news conference yesterday.
“It’s important to do that considering the heavy schedule. We need to look into the matter as we go into the future. There is a lot of talent in India and my job is to prepare these youngsters. It’s a pleasure to blood them in ODIs.”
Raina said he expected Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary and Subramaniam Badrinath to give a good account of themselves in the limited over series before most of the senior players returned for the subsequent three Tests.
“It’s a great opportunity for the youngsters who have done well in domestic cricket. I hope they will do well,” Raina said.
“I am really honoured to be leading the side. I am happy with the side as we have some very good batsmen … all of them have done well in first-class cricket. We have done well over the last three years and have won the World Cup. It’s for us as players to execute the plans of the coach. We have to play our natural game.”