India might have left out seasoned campaigners Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir from their ICC Champions Trophy squad, but South African speedster Dale Steyn feels even without the trio, skipper Mahendera Singh Dhoni has a strong side at his disposal.
"India have got a great side. If you look at the IPL, the highest run getters, the highest wicket takers are all Indian players and all of them are in Champions Trophy. They are going to do just fine. Hopefully not too fine against us," Steyn told PTI here in an interview.
Sehwag, Yuvraj and Gambhir have been omitted from the 15-man Indian squad by the selectors due to indifferent form.
India and South Africa are scheduled to kick-off the eight-nation tournament on June 6 at the Sophia Gardens at Wales, in a Group B match.
Apart from India and South Africa, the four-team Group B also features West Indies and Pakistan, and Steyn said it's a tough pool.
"It's a good group. It's a difficult group. All the teams are doing well and they are playing some good cricket at the moment. The rankings don't matter. There are some star players in every team that can just knock you out. We have got our work cut out for us when we go there. I am looking forward to that challenge," Steyn said about the group.
Steyn was of the opinion that the conditions in England would be dry in June and it could be challenging for both batsmen and bowlers.
"I think it gets dry there now in June. I know when we played the Test series last year, it was quite difficult to bowl on. It is also difficult to score on too. There weren't too many high scoring games in the ODIs we played. There weren't any 300 plus kind of scores, they were like 270 or 260. It always keeps the bowlers in the game. I will assess it when I get there," he said.
South Africa, too, would be missing key players like Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith and Steyn felt that the team lacked experience, but was also confident that the youngsters are capable of performing well.
