Our strategies surprised Lanka: Greg

"We are not yet a great team, but we are on the way to becoming a good outfit," says the coach.

The Indian strategies took the visiting Sri Lankans by surprise quite early on in the series and the team was now on track for becoming a "very good" outfit, coach Greg Chappell said on Friday.

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"We took them by surprise quite early on from which they struggled to recover. Yes, the first two games (at Nagpur and Mohali) were very important," Chappell told a media conference on the eve of the final match of the one-day series which India is leading 5-1.

"We are not yet a great team, but we are on the way to becoming a very good outfit. But we can't afford to relax. You don't know what's lurking round the corner in the form of an injury or lack of form," he said.

Chappell said as the series concludes they have many options for each position and the dilemma was rather whom to leave out.

"When we sit down to select the squad for the series against South Africa we are in a good situation. We have a dilemma over whom to leave out rather than whom to bring in," he said.

The Proteas are set to arrive in Mumbai in the early hours of Saturday to engage the hosts in a best-of-five limited overs international series starting at Hyderabad on November 16.

Chappell was not too concerned about the lack of a big innings from team vice captain Virender Sehwag who has not scored a half century in the series despite getting solid starts in almost every match.

"Sehwag has contributed much more than with the bat. He is a good bowler, has been of great support to Rahul. Yes, he needs to score more runs too," Chappell said.

"The most pleasing aspect is that we have not depended on just one or two players to do well. In each game a different player has done the job for us which is what we are striving for," he added.

Captain Rahul Dravid, after saying that it had been decided to leave out the indisposed Gautam Gambhir and J P Yadav from the 13 chosen for the match as a continuation of the team's rotation policy, said his squad members were keen to disperse home with a 6-1 verdict over the islanders.

"We play every game to win. One of the challenges is to keep focus on winning each and every game and make the preparations accordingly. We are keen to put up a good show and let the better team on the day win," India's leading run-getter in the series said.

Dravid also took the chance to praise the coaching staff connected with the team for the success of youngsters Gambhir and Rudra Pratap Yadav straightaway after being included in the playing squad.

"The coaches need to be complimented for the way Gambhir and R P Singh were kept in good mental and physical shape even when they were not playing. This helped the youngsters to deliver when given a chance," the Indian skipper said.

Asked about the pitch for tomorrow's match, Dravid said it appeared to be a good wicket that was expected to help the bowlers initially and then the batsmen.

Dravid said the team had kept the right balance between pace and spin throughout the series barring the Ahmedabad day-night clash in which off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was rested and was the lone match the home team had lost so far.

"We have had a healthy balance between spin and pace and have always fielded two spinners except at Ahmedabad when we rested Harbhajan," he said, adding the entire team was pleased with the way the young pace bowlers too had risen up to the challenge.

"It has been a good series for us and the most convincing victory margin that we have had for a long time," he concluded.