India's captain Rahul Dravid. - File photo

Audley Boyd, Assistant Editor - Sports

FLORENCE HALL, Trelawny:

After thrashing the West Indies by nine wickets in their ICC WI CWC warm-up match at the multi-purpose stadium in Trelawny, Indian skipper Rahul Dravid expressed confidence in his team's ability to lift the trophy.

"I think we've got the squad, we've got the team to do it. We've got a lot of experience in this team, people who've played in these conditions before. We've got some good, young energy, we've got the right kind of balance in this team that we feel is important in these conditions so I think we can do it."

"I think we've got the confidence and this time we can turn it around and play some good cricket in the West Indies," Dravid said as they registered their second consecutive warm-up win.

"I think it was really a good performance. We had an opportunity to bowl first in quite helpful conditions, but I think the bowlers really put the ball into the right areas and we took our catches, it's something we can take a lot of confidence from leading into the World Cup."

Along with the other 15 contenders, India will depart Monday for Trinidad and Tobago for its first round tournament matches.

"Conditions are different in Trinidad, obviously, but we're really happy with where we are and happy with our game and now it's a question of going on and repeating these performances, being really professional and tough when it matters," stated Dravid, who again had to answer for another Sehwag failure.

Skipper confident

The attacking Sehwag was included in the Indian squad at Dravid's request following a serious loss of form lately, but the skipper remained confident he had a role to play.

"Sehwag has missed out, we would like him to get some runs for us.

"It's a big tournament, there's a lot of games to come. He's a player who has done well here in the West Indies. In the last one-day series he scored a couple of nineties. We feel that he has a big role to play as the tournament goes on and hopefully he fires because we all know when he's well he can be a very dangerous cricketer."