On the eve of the important Super Six match against Sri Lanka, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said Sunday individual performances would not be enough to carry the team through in the big matches in the World Cup and urged his teammates to fire as a unit.
"We can't depend on one hundred or one or two guys contributing," Ganguly said. "All of us need to work. We are at a stage where we need to win one more game to ensure a semi-final berth."
"We want to finish second or third but more importantly we want to keep on winning."
India have done well to win all their matches in the competition so far except the one against Australia but the lack of form of a few players, most notably Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Mongia, is a cause of concern for the team.
Ganguly, however, backed Sehwag who has scored only 117 runs from seven matches in this tournament at an average of 16.71.
"I am not too concerned about Sehwag. It can happen in the first 15 overs when you have to score runs quickly," Ganguly said. "The ball is hard, the field is attacking and the best bowlers are in operation.
"It is not that he is batting badly. He has got starts but hasn't converted it. He needs to convert on them. It's just a matter of time before he strikes good."
Ganguly said the presence of Muttiah Muralitharan would be a big plus for Sri Lanka.
"We have done well against them recently but obviously it is in a new country and they are in good form. We will have to play really well to beat them," Ganguly said.
"They didn't have Muralitharan in England (in the NatWest Trophy) which makes a big difference to the side. They seem to be in better form than last summer and we need to be watchful."
Ganguly acknowledged the threat from Muralitharan who has added the away-going delivery to his already deadly armoury but was confident that his batsmen would be able to play him well.
"We have played Murali a lot so it's not that we can't pick him. You can pick him if you keep watching his hands closely," Ganguly said.
"He has developed the wrong-un recently but we have played him since he learnt to do it. When we were there in Sri Lanka (in 2001), he was doing it. It's not that it's unpickable."
Ganguly also singled out Chaminda Vaas as the bowler to watch out for. Vaas is the leading wicket-taker in this tournament with 16 scalps and Ganguly did not want his batsmen to take him any lightly.
"He is a very under-rated bowler. He has served Sri Lankan cricket for a long time and I have great respect for him," he said.
