Newly appointed canadian skipper eyes ICC Intercontinental Cup

Dubai, May 19 (UNI) Hoping to start his career with a win, Canada's newly appointed captain Ashish Bagai today said his team will put up a tough fight against the resurgent Ireland team in the finals of the ICC Intercontinental Cup.

''It's such an important game for us and I am looking forward to it enormously.'' he said.

The Indian-born canadian skipper is a specialised wicketkeeper and a right-handed batsman and now with additional burden of captaincy he knows that it won't be easy juggling all the three with equal finesse.

''It's not going to be easy to do all three things but I believe I can do it and I want to thank the selectors for having the faith in me to do it, he said.

Holding that defending champions Ireland will have an upper hand in next week's final at Grace Road, Leicester, Bagai said, ''We know the Ireland team quite well. They are a fighting side, they do the basics very well and they play within their limits.

''Doing so well in the World Cup they have been playing a lot more cricket than us and that is certainly an advantage for them. We are hoping that perhaps they'll be a little stale,'' the 25-year-old said.

Canada has been busy playing one day cricket for the last few months, so its obvious that it won't be easy playing four-day matches in the ICC Intercontinental Cup but the skipper seems quite confident as he has got his strategies sorted out.

''I think there is a different approach needed. You have to take it session by session and if you fall behind it can be difficult to regain the initiative in the match. You have to trust in your ability and show a lot more patience than one-day cricket. Stamina and fitness are also factors. There is a different type of fitness required for the Intercontinental Cup than ODIs so we have been working on that,'' he said.

Bagai has his eyes on the next World Cup. He is determined to rebuild his team so that it can a team to be reckon with in the showpiece event.

''The next step for us in Canada is to rebuild the team with an eye on the next ICC Trophy (now called the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier). I hope we can inject some youthful energy into it and help build a side that will be together for the next few years,'' said Bagai.

UNI