Lara wants to extend winning streak

He said so during Friday’s post-match ceremony, following West Indies’ six-wicket win to hold an unbeatable 3-1 series lead.

“We are on the road to get ourselves ready for the World Cup (here in the West Indies next year). First of all we have the ICC Champions Trophy tournament after this and we are looking forward to that so it is important that we keep the distance between ourselves and India,” Lara said.

“We know that they are without a couple of their best players but I think it is important that we continue winning,” he said preaching the value of consistent results.

Since he was reappointed as the Windies skipper a month ago, Lara led the regional team to a 5-0 triumph over Zimbabwe in a recent home one-day contest.

He declared on Thursday that this weekend’s matches would be his last international appearances in front of his home crowd. And, with the four-Test series due to begin in Antigua on Friday, Lara noted that left-arm spinner Dave “Tadpole” Mohammed, left-handed opener Sewnarine Chattergoon and pacer Jerome Taylor, who were all omitted from Friday’s match, may be included today.

“In all, I was quite happy with the performance of the guys and it now makes for us the match (today) very, very important because we are going to try, I suppose, some of our reserves and if we can beat India with that, I think it shows that we are clearly a better team,” Lara pointed out.

His opposite captain Rahul Dravid was understandably displeased with the fact that his team has now lost three straight matches against the hosts.

“It’s disappointing but as I have said, everything is a learning process, something we can get better at,” he emphasised. “It’s good in a way. We know the areas of the game we need to work on and get better at and I think we will get better with the experience.

“I think there are a lot of young boys in this team so I think they’ll learn from the experiences and hopefully will be a better side for it,” he added. While India is renowned for their slow wickets, he indicated that the pitches in the Caribbean have yet to be to the visitors’ liking.

“I thought we sort of struggled to get used to these conditions, especially with the batting on these slow wickets,” said Dravid.

“They (West Indies) bowled well in good areas and we have not been able to get the sort of total that has been expected of us.

“We have struggled a little bit to get used to these conditions and especially against their spinners,” he said. “It is something we can work on, something we can get better on and it’s a good experience for us as I think we have learnt a lot about these wickets and something we’ll take away with us and come back better.”