We will put the Indians under pressure: Hussain

Kolkata, January 18: England cricket captain Nasser Hussain today lavishly praised the Indian team, saying bulk of their players were among the most talented in the world and asserted that the visitors would put pressure on the Indians to outplay them.

"Indian has eight, nine or ten players who would be among the most talented in the world. You never know what you can be hit with. It could be a 281 from V V S Laxman or an astounding performance from anyone else," Hussain told newspersons here at the customary pre-match press conference ahead of tomorrow's day-night international at the Eden Gardens.

Hussain made special mention of his Indian counterpart Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Javagal Srinath.

He said the key to keep talent down was pressure, and reminded the scribes the Indian team was suspect on crunch situations as demonstrated by their consecutive defeats in the finals of various tournaments.

"If we give them the opportunity to show their talent, we will struggle. One-Day game is all about pressure. If we put enough pressure on them, we will do well," he said.

The seasoned right hand batsman, who captains Essex, said that his young team was looking forward to playing at the giant Eden Gardens before a capacity crowd.

"They have just started their journey. They can learn a lot from their experience of playing a big game like tomorrow's at such a venue. Only those with strong character can come through tomorrow," Hussain said.

Dwelling on the inexperience of his side, the 33-year old Chennai-born player said Tendulkar had played more matches than the entire English side put together but hoped that his team would be able to put up a good show "as they did in the recent test series".

Refusing to disclose names of the opening bowlers likely to be picked by the visitors for tomorrow's match, he said two among Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and the in, Anil Kumble and Sarandeep Singh, he said "such things are not unusual in this part of the world and we saw it in Pakistan last winter on a regular basis."

He went on to add that other than the three, India also had Tendulkar and Sehwag who could bowl spin.

Hussain praised the Eden wicket, saying that it looked good and tailor-made for One Day cricket, but pointed out that he did not know how it would react under the flood-lights. "However, the white ball has swung a little bit."

Asked whether his team would be under pressure playing before such a big crowd, he joked "I would prefer to play before a crowd of 80,000 than a man and a dog at Chelmsford."

"I think there will be a lost of pressure on the Indian team also, which has a number of young players. They will also be up against the large number of supporters at the stadium who will expect them to win," the England skipper said.

Asked about the dew factor affecting the course of the day-night encounter, Hussain said "In most part of the world, there is a bit of the dew on the wet ball, and it is also going to be dewy under the lights later. Definitely, there will be little bit of dew."

"We haven't spent enough time at the pitch under the lights. The white ball swings in round about really. If it is dewy, it may develop more of the wicket. Obviously then you can get a wet ball and its a turner," Hussain said.

Indicating his preference for specialist bowlers on sub-continent wickets, he said bits and pieces bowlers had lesser chance of succeeding on such tracks. However, he hastened to add that with Alec Stewart calling it quits, the team also needs to have depth in the batting.

He said a large part of the final selection meeting would be spent in deciding whether the side needed to play two spinners.

On the batting line up of side, he said "What we have to do is get people at their favourite position. That's best for the team''.