Undergoing a fitness regime at a preparation camp, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly on Thursday said his team was banking on the home advantage to see it through in the coming series against New Zealand in October.
"We lost to them in New Zealand. We beat them in the World Cup. Obviously, it's going to be an important series. We hope to do well," Ganguly told reporters in Bangalore.
He said the 13-day conditioning camp for 36 probables which began on Thursday, would focus on fitness. "It's more to do with fitness than cricket for the next two weeks."
"Fitness of the players has improved immensely in the last one year and we hope to improve on this."
Ganguly said he did not regard the number of probables as huge as it would give coach John Wright, physio Andrew Leipus and King an opportunity to build up the team's bench strength.
Ganguly jumped to the defence of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif who have had a poor stint in English county cricket. "County cricket is not easy. You play almost six days a week in a span of six months. It's a good learning process. They will definitely come out as better players after six months of county cricket," he said.
Ganguly said the six-month break after the World Cup in South Africa was a 'very good' as it offered a great opportunity to the players to take their minds off the game.
He disagreed with the view that the Indian team had been playing fewer Test matches in the last two years. "We played 16 Test matches last year, and 15 the year before."
The skipper is looking forward to working with newly recruited physical trainer Gregory King. "Whatever little I have spoken to him, I got the impression he knows what he is talking about," Ganguly said.
