I want to take the first Australian wicket: Srinath

Indian pace spearhead Javagal Srinath said in Mumbai on Sunday that his immediate goal for the first Test match was to take the first Australian wicket.

The 31-year-old paceman, along with vice captain Rahul Dravid were speaking to reporters at the Wankhede stadium after the morning practice session.

Srinath said that all ten Australian wickets were important and no single batsman was being targetted. He mentioned that the Indian management had thought hard and long and they had specific plans to counter the Australian batting order. According to him, it would not serve any purpose by targetting one particular batsmen as there would still be nine wickets left.

Srinath was skeptical of the nature and condition of Indian pitches. He praised Kapil Dev for taking most of his wickets on these tracks. While adding that he himself had bagged quite a few wickets on these flat pitches, he evaded a question about the possibility of the series being dominated by spinners.

The Karnataka paceman, who made his Test debut ten years ago in Australia, described Anil Kumble's absence as a major setback to the team. He remarked that Kumble had been the spearhead of the Indian attack for almost ten years and the Indian team would miss him badly. "We need to face up to reality and get on with the game," adding that the replacements were very good bowlers. He expressed confidence that they would do a good job in the series.

On his own career, Srinath said that he would like to play the One Day games as well but as of now he will be concentrating on the Test match ahead.

According to Dravid, the Australians had a very good bowling attack and also possessed a formidable batting order. He added that the Indian team had discussed each Australian player carefully and the strategies drawn out should reap good results in the Test matches. He said, "We need to concentrate on what we want to do and not what they have done."

Both Srinath and Dravid were happy with the training they underwent at Chennai and rated it as the best preparation camp so far.