We are not underestimating Bangladesh: Dravid

Port of Spain, Mar 16 (UNI) Indian skipper Rahul Dravid today described Bangladesh as a tough opponent and admitted that he has little information about the rival cricketers against whom they start their World Cup campaign here tomorrow.

''We haven't played them for long so this is something we have take note of. We don't know many of their current players and it's a young side. But we have got the video footage of current players,'' Dravid told media persons after the team had a work out at Queen's Park Oval.

It has more that two years since India played their Sub-continental rivals last and the Dravid is wary of the opposition.

''It's a side which is closer to eight Test nations than the minnows. May be in 2003 they were closer to the likes of Zimbabwe but now it's different.

''So one has to be careful while playing against them in a one-off game. May be if it was a five-game affair than things would have been different but not in this competition.'' Dravid made it clear that he wanted clinical win against Bangladesh.

''We want to play as professionally and clinically as possible.

It's start of the tournament so we want to make sure of win, to start with.'' Dravid asserted he has a very competent side. ''You have strength in some areas while you lack in a few other matters. Some teams are more balanced that others. Hopefully we would cover up for areas we are lacking at the moment.'' He was of the view that not all pitches in the Caribbean would be slow and low in nature. ''No one knows for sure how pitches would behave in this competition. Each island would be different from the other. From what we saw of Queen's Park Oval yesterday the pitch had a bit of bounce, pace and carry. Fortunately we believe we have the flexibility in our team to adapt to different conditions.'' The skipper said he knew that millions of fans back home have high expectations from the team and Team India were keen not to let them down.

''If we are satisfied with our performance, if we can be good representative and ambassador of India, I think it would satisfy a lot of people back home.'' Dravid said he will decide about the final eleven just before the start of the match. ''Let our rivals keep thinking about all our 15 players.'' UNI HSB DH VC2228