'My money is on India'

Mumbai: Former Indian middle order batsman, Praveen Amre insists that he will put his money on India to win both the Test and ODI series during their tour of England.

Amre felt the strong Indian batting and leg-spinner Anil Kumble hold the key during India’s Test campaign in England.

Backing Indians to do well in England due to their much improved batting display in recent times, Praveen Amre, who has played county cricket in England and has the distinction of scoring a century on his Test debut against South Africa, said Kumble’s experience will come in handy even though the Karnataka star has not been as successful while playing away as he is at home.

In an exclusive interview to Cricketnext.com’s Deputy Editor V Veera Kumar, the former India player, who is also the coach of the successful Mumbai Ranji Trophy team, said his money would be on India in both the Test series as well as the One-Day International series during the 80-day tour.

Excerpts from the interview:

Cricketnext: According to you, which are the key factors for success during India’s tour of England?

Praveen Amre: The new-look Indian batting order looks pretty good and if our batsmen click in a big way and put enough runs on the board then our bowlers, spearheaded by Anil Kumble, can win matches for us.

Youngsters like Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik have brought in more solidity to our batting and there is healthy competition in the Test batting line-up, which is very good for the team.

Nobody, including the seniors, can take their place for granted and to keep their place they have to keep scoring innings after innings because otherwise they know that there are a couple of youngsters breathing down their neck to take their place.

This kind of healthy competition can only do good to the cause of the team as the youngsters too will be well aware that they are in with a chance to prove their mettle if any of the seniors fail. Probably this kind of scenario has only helped youngsters like Yuvraj, Karthik, Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer to do well in the recent past.

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