Ganguly wants Srinath back for England tour

New Delhi, June 5: Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly said on Wednesday he will attempt to persuade pace spearhead Javagal Srinath to reconsider his retirement plans and make the upcoming tour of England.

Srinath, the kingpin of India's new ball attack, announced last week he was quitting Test cricket to concentrate on a fitting swan song at the World Cup in South Africa early next year.

But Ganguly, worried that Srinath's absence will further weaken his inexperienced pace attack on the England tour, wants Srinath back.

"Srinath is our best bowler who can guide the youngsters," the Indian captain said after returning from the team's Caribbean tour.

"I will speak to him as early as I can and ask him to reconsider his decision."

The Indian team for the one-day tri-series against England and Sri Lanka starting on June 27, will be named on Saturday.

The squad for the subsequent four Tests against England will be picked later.

Srinath, with 232 wickets from 64 Tests, was India's second most successful fast bowler after Kapil Dev's tally of 434.

Srinath claimed just 13 wickets during the recent five-Test series in the West Indies, which India lost 2-1, and was then rested for the one-day internationals.

India won the one-dayers 2-1, but still remain without a Test series win outside the Indian sub-continent since 1986 when they beat England.

Ganguly, who was retained captain for the England tour, tried to play down the Test defeat by saying he was happy to win the one-dayers.

"It was disappointing to lose the Test series, but I think we did pretty well to win the one-dayers and I am happy the way the young bowlers performed on the tour," he said.

Ganguly also allayed fears that star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who developed a shoulder injury in the latter part of the West Indies tour, will not be fit for England.

"The injury is not serious and Sachin should be okay with a few days rest," he said.

Ganguly was adamant the experiment of asking frontline batsman Rahul Dravid to keep wickets in one-day matches will continue in England.

"I would like Dravid to keep wickets so that we have a strong batting order," he said.

"However we will see how things works out in England and then change accordingly."

With the two-month Caribbean tour behind them, the Indian cricketers have 12 days to rest before flying to London on June 18.