Dravid confident of batting despite key absentees

Rahul Dravid has expressed his confidence in the Indian batting line-up despite the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Speaking to the media before leaving for Colombo for the triangular IndianOil one-day tournament also involving the hosts and West Indies, Dravid said: "There is still a lot of quality in our batting. Both Sourav and Sachin are experienced players. It [their non-availability] gives an opportunity to some of the other guys to show they can play at this level."

Tendulkar, the leading scorer in one-dayers with 13,642 runs, has been ruled out of the tournament following an elbow surgery. While, Ganguly provisionally included in the squad, is doubtful as he is serving a six-match ban for his team's slow over-rate during the home one-day series against Pakistan in April. A decision on his suspension is expected to be announced next week.

"The composition of the side gives us the option to play whatever combination we like," said Dravid. "We do have two specialist spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. If the conditions permit, we might play both of them or it will be three pacemen and one spinner."

Suresh Raina, the all-rounder, and Venugopal Rao, the middle-order batsman, are the uncapped players in the team.

Greg Chappell, the new coach, said his team needed to show consistency if they aimed to begin the fresh season on a bright note. "Our aim in the series is to play consistent cricket," said Chappell. "The players will have to do the basics right day in, day out. If they can do that, the outcome will look after itself."

India is scheduled to take on Sri Lanka at Dambulla on July 30 and West Indies the following day.

Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Jai Prakash Yadav, Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao, Mahender Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji, Sourav Ganguly.