Cricket: India vows to bring stars for NZ tour

Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar could be coming to New Zealand

Those fearing India might leave some of their stars at home when they come to New Zealand in March can breathe a little easier.

The high-profile, big-money Indian Premier League competition starts on April 10, three days after the second and final test against New Zealand concludes at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.

There had been worries forces might conspire to keep key players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Virendar Sehwag home resting up for the Twenty20 gig.

However, noises out of India in the last day from a couple of important figures, plus the cancelling of India's tour of Pakistan this month, suggest a powerful squad will be named for the two-test, five-ODI tour.

Had the Indian tour to Pakistan gone ahead - India pulled out recently, in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks last month - there might have been a stronger case for allowing some of the big names to put their feet up for a few weeks.

Now that tour won't happen, India's players are having some unexpected time off, increasing the likelihood that the hotshots will all be on the plane to New Zealand.

Then there's the pronouncement of India's chairman of selectors, Kris Srikkanth.

He has identified two targets for India - to be the world's No 1 ODI team by December, and to be the world's No 1 test team by 2010.

"This is the dream of the selection committee and the Indian board," he told the Hindu newspaper.

Srikkanth was optimistic about India's prospects in New Zealand, and pointed to their recent overseas record as support. In the last five years, India have won six away series - although three were against either Bangladesh or Zimbabwe - including Pakistan, the West Indies and England.

"We have been performing consistently well in all conditions. But for the umpiring errors in Sydney [last season] we could have won the series in Australia too.

"Our bowlers I believe have always done well outside India. Now our batting is complementing the bowling."

And Srikkanth singled out experienced No 3 batsman Rahul Dravid as having a key role in New Zealand. Dravid, who averages 52 in tests, had been out of sorts until his century against England at Mohali just before Christmas, but is one of the four batsmen, with the world's greatest test runmaker Tendulkar, the recently-retired Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman, to have formed perhaps cricket's greatest middle-order quartet.

"He's a batsman with over 10,000 runs in test cricket," Srikkanth said. "We have specific plans. During the forthcoming series in New Zealand, a player like Dravid will be very crucial for us.

"There will be bounce and movement for the pacemen there. If India are to progress to the No 1 ranking, it has to beat New Zealand in New Zealand. Dravid will be a key member of the line-up at the No 3 slot."

And throw in the thoughts of match-winning opener Sehwag.

"We have the urge and talent to be the best team for sure," he said. "But our immediate focus is to do well in New Zealand and take things from there."