Fletcher: Inexperience makes for excitement

Cricket365
June 26, 2014

India are in England ahead of a five-Test series against the Three Lions, and visiting coach Duncan Fletcher feels his side's inexperience could be a positive thing, and make for an exciting series.

The squad has three uncapped players in Ishwar Pandey, Pankaj Singh and Stuart Binny, while only skipper MS Dhoni, paceman Ishant Sharma, and opening bat Gautam Gambhir have played a series in the UK before.

But Fletcher is certain his young team will be able to do well against the hosts, especially as they're at a bit of a low ebb at the moment, and that they will fight extra hard to prove their worth.

Fletcher said: "Without making excuses it is a very, very inexperienced side: If you look at how many Tests our opening batters have played, how many Tests our No. 3 has played, how many Tests our bowlers have played.

"But it is nice sometimes, because being unpredictable they will play some exciting cricket. There are some very, very exciting cricketers in this group who would go on to be very, very good cricketers for India.

"They might fire from this series and there will be some very, very good cricket played."

Skipper Dhoni agreed that their experience levels in England were not high, but felt that they had given themselves enough time to get used to conditions, what with tour matches and other previous games in the UK.

He said: "It's always good to have players who have played in the scenario before but as I've said it's a team that doesn't have too many players in it that have played in England.

"The good thing is a lot of them have played some kind of cricket in England. There are quite a few who were part of the Champions Trophy. There are quite a few who have played in England in other leagues, not just the counties, under-age cricket, maybe the Under-19s.

"All that really helps but it will be important for those players who have not played too many games to get used to the conditions really quickly. We're here 15 to 20 days before the first Test so that will obviously help."

Dhoni added that he was not at all underestimating England on the back of their defeat to Sri Lanka: "What you assess is how good a side the opposition is, and I still think England are a fantastic side, which means it will be a tough competition for us.

"They know the home conditions better than us. It's a long series, five Test matches followed by five ODIs and one T20. Playing a series with five Test matches is something that's entirely new for us. But overall I think it will be really good."