Former Indian captain and coach Ajit Wadekar said Indian cricketers should not be unduly worried about the reactions of their fans if they do not do well but concentrate on playing to their potential during the historic tour of Pakistan.
Wadekar said the Indians would do "very well" in Pakistan as their confidence level was very high after their fine showing in Australia.
"They will do very well. Their confidence level is very high after their fine showing in Australia. I think what the players are worried about is the reaction of their fans back home if they don't do well," he said on Wednesday.
"I think they are more concerned about the short memory and notorious behaviour of Indian fans than the partisan Pakistan crowd," Wadekar, one of the most successful India captains, in an interview.
"Even I had to face the brunt of it despite leading the Indian team to their first ever overseas wins against the West Indies and England as the memory of our fans is too short", he said.
Wadekar, who led a World XI to Pakistan in 1976, said India should capitalise on their strong batting line-up against the hosts who are in the rebuilding process.
"We are playing as an unit and with a very strong batting line-up and some young bowlers to back them, I think we have a good chance of winning a Test series abroad especially with Pakistan rebuilding their team," he said.
"I think more than their bowlers causing any problem, the main hurdle could come in the form of their coach Javed Miandad's comments, which are as deadly as Shoaib Akhtar's beamers," Wadekar said in a lighter vein.
Wadekar said he did not think that the security concern will play on the Indian players' mind during the series as the President of Pakistan himself has promised tight security.
"Plus, the Indians will be with their families all the time for comforts off the field."
"Though I did not play in Pakistan as a member of an Indian team, I think the Pakistanis always appreciate any team that plays good cricket and the Indians should prepare themselves to play some good cricket during the forthcoming tour and leave the security aspect to the Indian government," he added.
"On the field the Indians will be oozing with confidence as their batsmen are complimenting the bowlers with huge totals against a much superior attack as the Aussies," he said.
"When I led the World XI, we played seven one-dayers winning the series 4-3 and we did not face any crowd trouble.
On the contrary we could move around freely anywhere despite not having visas," the former southpaw said.
On the wickets, Wadekar, said they will be slow but the ball will move in the air.
"The wickets will be somewhat like we find in England in the early part of a Test match and then break to give assistance to spinners. With the ball moving a bit it should be ideal for young fast bowlers like Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji, who are improving everyday, to have a go at the inexperienced Pakistan batting," Wadekar said.
Commenting on the absence of key bowlers including off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and question marks over Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble, he said: "I think we have in-form bowlers like Ramesh Powar (Mumbai off-spinner) to replace Harbhajan. This is the right time for Powar to get a break as he is a gutsy player.
"He can be an useful batsman down the order, along with Kulmani Parida, who captain Sourav Ganguly picked. Seamer Amit Bhandari too was quite impressive in one-dayers in Australia."
Wadekar was confident of the young bowlers doing well in Pakistan.
"I feel the young fast bowlers we saw during the Aussie tour were not only talented but were also very aggressive and that is a very good sign. Pathan and Balaji have shown that they can hit the ball quite hard and if they can improve their batting a little bit then they can be very useful down the order along with players like Powar and Parida," he said.
"I wish the team good luck and may the players bring laurels to the country by winning both the one-day as well as the Test series."
