Leaving no stone untwisted in his preparation for next month's
Sri Lanka tour, stylish batsman
VVS Laxman is practising on grate wickets to fine-tune his technique against spinners.
VVS Laxman said
playing spinners well would be critical to the team's success in Sri Lanka and he was not taking any chance.
"For the last two weeks, I have been practicing hard for the coming Sri Lanka tour. I am playing on the gravel pitches to fine-tune my technique as Sri Lanka has some quality spinners in
Ajantha Mendis and
Muttiah Muralitharan," said the elegant stroke player.
"They also have some other good slow bowlers like
Rangana Herath. I want to do well and start the season on a high," he said.
"Two years back when we toured Sri Lanka we
lost the series 1-2. This time we want to turn things around," said
India will tour Sri Lanka in July-August for a three-match
Test series and a
triangular one-day series with New Zealand as the 3rd team.
The first Test match will start on July 10 at
Galle while the remaining two matches are scheduled in
Colombo and Dambulla on July 18-22 and July 26-30 respectively.
It is, however,
Australia which brings out the best in VVS Laxman and Laxman said he was waiting to strut his stuff against the old enemies when the Aussies tour India later this year.
"A
ustralia will tour India in winter and it's always a great enjoyment to host them," Laxman said.
"Australia is a highly competitive side in
Test cricket and I hope to present a tough challenge to them. We want to repeat our earlier performances on home soil where we have always won against them," he said.
Dwelling on the second-string Indian team playing a
tri-series in Zimbabwe, Laxman said these are the players who would take over from the seniors.
"The team in Zimbabwe is a very talented one and the boys have that killer sense in them. The match against Sri Lanka was indication of this fact where they crushed them in a comprehensive manner. These youngsters are the
future of the country," Laxman said.
Virendar Sehwag is a leading the list with 863 points and is followed by South Africa's Hashim Amla (842) and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene (836).
"For the last two weeks, I have been practicing hard for the coming Sri Lanka tour. I am playing on the gravel pitches to fine-tune my technique as Sri Lanka has some quality spinners in Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan," said the elegant stroke player.