'We've adapted better than the opposition' - Dravid

Despite being a win away from taking the best-of-four contest against West Indies, a relaxed Rahul Dravid chose to look at the bigger picture looming over India - the World Cup. India's policy of experimentation, if you will, has come under increasing scrutiny from many quarters, but Dravid remained confident in the management's decisions.

Unlike Brian Lara before him, Dravid chose to identify some of India's preparations for the World Cup. "Results are very important for us. We play to win, that's it. Whoever plays in the XI, we're confident that he has the ability to win us a match," told reporters after India's nets session. "We don't just play people like that. Like I said, we have some questions to sort out before the World Cup, but we have to give people chances to balance the equation.

"Hence, we've recalled Yuvraj [Singh] to prove his fitness over 50 overs. Until he does that, we can't judge him. There are other young batsmen we need to judge too, who may go to the Caribbean. It's based on performance, but not just how many runs a guy scores. It's a team game, and we need to see how certain people fit in. I'm confident of our World Cup 15 as the pieces are all falling into place."

The management has taken some flak from certain quarters for routinely bringing in a young player and then discarding him for another, but as Dravid put it, is was all part of getting the right make-up for the World Cup. "As a captain, it's tough. You have to make tough decisions and explain to the boys why you've done so. No one likes to be told they're dropped, but it's a fact of international cricket that's been going on since day one, and will go on much after I leave the captaincy. The management has experience, we senior players have experience, and we try and get the best combination. Not every decision will please everyone. Even if Joginder [Sharma] or RP Singh comes in for a game at a time, they shouldn't get disheartened. There's a lot of cricket after the World Cup. It's not the end of the road, and some of the boys in this team will miss out next month. That's part of the game. Eleven guys can play in a team, and 15 in a tournament, and as long as you can explain to someone what the reasons are, despite what anyone has to say, you're doing fine."

Dravid was confident of the side's ability to bounce back from a worrisome past few months, and pointed at the last two wins over West Indies as proof of that. "It was quite significant to defend a low score [at Cuttack]. We've bowled really well and defended so many other low-scoring games. It's a huge plus for us. We had some good contributions down the order; Dinesh [Karthik] played really well, as have others."

He also talked of India's ability to bounce back on variable pitches: "The important thing is to win. So far, we've adapted better than the opposition. You need to do that. In the last game, we did that. That's the confidence we need to take further. Sure, there are areas we could've done better in, but it's hard to be too picky. There's no mantra or magic formula to win a game. It comes down to key performance in critical situations, and our boys have done that in the last two games."

Questioned by one scribe as to the 'iffy' manner in which Yuvraj batted in the afternoon nets, Dravid shot back a quizzical,"Well, if you can judge the way he batted from outside the ground, you're something special. Look, medically he's 100% fit. Dr Anand Joshi and John Gloster have passed him fit, and it just comes down to his fitness on the field. He'll need 50 overs to prove that."