VB Series will be tougher than Champions Trophy - Lara

West Indies may have won the Champions Trophy in England last year, but Brian Lara, their captain, is under no illusions about how different the challenge will be for his team in the VB Series in Australia. West Indies' win in England was achieved in seaming conditions which made low scores the norm, but Lara warned that the batsmen would have to take the onus of putting up the runs in Australia.

"We've got to understand that it's going to be 250 plus (by the opposition) the majority of the time and our batters have got to understand we've got to get those totals and more, whether we're batting first or chasing," Lara said, according to Daily Nation, a Barbados newspaper. In three warm-up games so far, the West Indian batsmen have come to the party just once, and even that was largely due to Lara's unbeaten 116 against Australia A. On the other two occasions, the team was bundled out for 201 and 192.

Lara also stressed that the bowlers would find the conditions tough. "This is not the ICC tournament. It's not England in September when conditions favoured our fast bowlers. This is Australia. Bowlers like [Wavell] Hinds and [Dwayne] Bravo who can excel in places like England are going to find it very tough. You don't want to be chasing 300 plus. You want to have the bowlers who are capable of limiting the opposition."

He conceded that West Indies could have to revisit their policy of packing the side with batsmen - a strategy which paid off in England. "It's a tough toss-up between sacrificing a batsman and playing the extra bowler or lengthening the batting and hoping that the likes of (Marlon) Samuels, (Chris) Gayle and Hinds can do the job along with the couple of specialist bowlers."

Lara also raised concerns about West Indies' fielding. "I'm still seeing a lot of loopholes in our fielding," he said. "If we can improve in that area it's going to be very important as support for our bowlers. I think the coaching staff we've got here now is capable enough to carry that area. We just need to work harder."