Ganguly undecided about spin-option

Chester-Le-Street, July 03: With his pace attack looking settled, captain Sourav Ganguly has a problem about which spinner to play in tomorrow's day-night game against England in the NatWest triangular one-day series here.

"I sometimes find it difficult who to pick and who to drop," said Ganguly today after the practice session at the Riverside ground as clouds gathered overhead threatening heavy showers.

Ganguly was obviously referring to his predicament in choosing between ace leg-spinner Anil Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

The medium-pace trio of Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar have started to gel well together and have invariably pulled things back whenever the situation threatened to get out of control as it appeared at one stage against both England and Sri Lanka in India's first two games.

"The best thing is the way they have bowled in the death overs especially Zaheer Khan has been fantastic in the last overs. He doesn't seem to go for anything in the death," said Ganguly.

Ganguly said he has been trying to hold back Agarkar and Zaheer Khan in the final 10 overs and possibly let Nehra bowl through his 10 overs in one spell or midway through the rivals' innings.

"Agarkar went for runs in the last game. But if you look at Lord's, he bowled pretty well in the final overs. He bowls his yorkers well and varies his pace," he said.

The skipper said it meant it left the team with a problem in choosing between the two specialist spinners in the side.

"Both are outstanding spinners but if it is overcast, as it looks likely, we will probably play only one spinner," said Ganguly.

And where batting is concerned, Ganguly said, the line-up runs deep till seven and then follow the four bowlers.

"We have gone for seven batsmen because we have never batted deep. Our weakness in the past has been that we have struggled after five wickets are down.

"However, Rahul Dravid's dual role has given a great depth to the side. He has been absolute revelation, as good as anyone I have seen do it.

"The good thing is, he is improving all the time," the skipper said.

Ganguly also admitted he had been thinking for quite some time about Sachin Tendulkar coming in to bat at number four.

"I had been thinking of Sachin batting in the middle for quite some time but we couldn't just implement it because he has such a fantastic record," said Ganguly. "But now I think we have the right balance.

"We have batsmen who can bowl and the fielding standards have improved greatly. We have played 16 one-dayers out of which we have won 10. It is also a reflection that the boys are getting fitter.

"The thing is we are beginning to gel well at the moment though of course the important thing will be the final at Lord's on the 13th," Ganguly said.

Ganguly looked ahead at the World Cup in South Africa next year and at India's group which has strong teams like Australia, Pakistan, England and Zimbabwe.

"We have a pretty tough group but we are looking to qualify. If you are looking to win the World Cup it doesn't matter. You have to beat the best to win it."

"We have been trying to forge a combination for the World Cup and our fortune depends on how we play in the World Cup. We might play well here, we might play well in New Zealand. But if we don't play well in World Cup, all our effort goes down the drain.

"Our performance here and in New Zealand will help us in determining the strength and weakness of the team before we go for the World Cup. It is too early to say but I hope we find out all that at the end of this one-day series."