Dravid ready for Bangladesh challenge

Rahul Dravid's most recent memory of playing against Bangladesh isn't a pleasant one, but he, and the entire team, have an opportunity to put that defeat behind them over the next three weeks. The Indian team reached Dhaka this morning, and Dravid insisted that his team would be better prepared this time around after having seen some of the youngsters from the Bangladesh team in action during the World Cup.

"There were a lot of young players in the Bangladesh team that we hadn't seen much of [before the World Cup]," Dravid said. "Now we have a lot more first-hand knowledge about some of their better players."

India were ousted from the World Cup after their five-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in Trinidad, but Dravid refused to see this series as an opportunity for revenge. "I don't really believe in revenge. There is no place for it in our book," he told reporters at the airport. "What there is, is a place to show your potential and play really, very good cricket and I think that's what we are looking to do here.I am sure that we have got some very good players, very talented players and the players are ready to do well. That's what we expect to show during the series."

The Indians had a conditioning camp in Kolkata before the series, and Dravid said that the weather conditions there would help his players acclimatise to the hot and humid conditions in Bangladesh - according to weather officials, the average temperature in many parts of the country has gone up to 37 degrees Celcius, about seven degrees higher than it was in the same period last year. Dravid, however, played down the heat factor.

"The weather is the same for both teams and a lot of our players endure similar conditions in India," he said. "It is not that we are coming from somewhere where the weather is very different from here, so I don't think it's really an issue for us. We had a good camp in Kolkata, the boys really acclimatised well and are looking forward to playing some very good cricket."

The Indians don't have any practice games lined up - they play three ODIs, on May 10, 12, and 15, before going into two back-to-back Tests.