CHENNAI: Coach Gary Kirsten said today India needed to be consistent in the tri-series in Sri Lanka to become the world’s best ODI team.

India, who have won five successive bilateral series, will top the one-day rankings if they beat both Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the league stage and also win the final on September 14. “We have set our goals,” Kirsten said ahead of the team’s departure for Colombo. “One of them is to be the best team in the world. We are headed that way and we are very excited. We have to perform well as we continue the quest

to be the best. We

won the last two series in Sri Lanka and we are confident.”

India are without injured opener Virender Sehwag and paceman Zaheer Khan, but Kirsten said the team had the depth to do well. “Obviously, missing a player like Sehwag is huge,” the former South African opener said. “He is a quality batsman, but we have got a lot of depth in

our cricket at the moment. We have done well in Sri Lanka and are familiar with the conditions. We know we are playing against two good teams, but we have been performing well and we need to maintain that.”

India open their campaign against New Zealand on Friday and play the hosts the next day. Kirsten said the toss would be vital on low, slow Sri Lankan pitches, where chasing a target under lights was not easy.

“Winning the toss is quite important,” said Kirsten. “But if you are going to be a world-class team, you need to win from any situation or condition. We have a good batting line-up which is flexible in the middle order.”

He said Rahul Dravid’s return after nearly two years

also augured well

for the team.