UNITED KINGDOM: India's mix of veterans and inexperienced players are looking forward to the challenge of a three match test series against England and spin bowler Monty Panesar

India's cricket captain is looking forward to facing England's spin bowling star Monty Panesar in the three test series which begins at Lord's on Thursday (July 19). Rahul Dravid was speaking at the launch of a three month Indian cultural season in the UK capital which saw a model of the Taj Mahal being towed along the River Thames on a barge. Asked whether senior players like himself and Sachin Tendulkar were under pressure to perform well on what is probably their last tour of England, Dravid said: "I don't think we're concerned about whether it's our final tour or not the final tour. Who knows what will happen in the future? I don't think we'll see there's any additional pressure on us on this tour as there was on the last tour." Dravid said his side was a mixture of highly experienced veterans and some inexperienced players. "There are lot of great cricketers and great batsmen in our team and you can't have played the amount of cricket that some of them have without knowing where your off stump is. "We have got some inexperienced players.... it's a great opportunity, someone's got to start somewhere and they've got potential and they've got talent and hopefully they'll be able to show it over the next three games." Asked if Panesar was a threat, Dravid responded: "I think he's a threat as much as anyone else is, he's been bowling very well, he's had a lot of success over the last year and rightly so. "I think he's improved consistently since his first tour of India and we're looking forward to the challenge of playing him over the summer. It should be a good challenge, for both Monty and ourselves."

ITN Source | July 18, 2007

Tags:. .happen. .englands. .thursday. .test. .speaking