The wounded Indians, who were sent packing by Bangladesh from the first round of the just-concluded World Cup in the West Indies, took a short flight from Kolkata to reach Dhaka for their second full series after they had played their first one in 2004.

India won their first series quite comfortably, clinching the Test series 2-0 and lifting the one-day series 2-1.

But after Bangladesh's glorious five-wicket victory against Rahul Dravid's boys in the Caribbean, the latest series that start with the three one-dayers got enormous attention among fans of the two neighbouring countries.

While Dravid's India, without their two great sporting icons -- Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, will try to bury their World Cup blues with convincing wins, the Tigers are ready to build on their success in the World Cup, where they also beat South Africa in the Super Eight phase.

Both Tendulkar and Ganguly were not considered for the one-day series but would join the team for the Test series.

The one-dayers start on Thursday at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. The new home of Bangladesh cricket will also play host to the second ODI on Saturday.

The teams will then fly to Chittagong to play the third and final one-dayer on May 15 and the first Test from May 18.

The second Test will take place at Mirpur again from May 25.

Captain Dravid and new cricket manager Ravi Shastri said on their arrival at the Zia International Airport that they wanted to play hard cricket and win their first assignment after a forgettable World Cup.

"Our target is like any other series. We have come here to win 'em all but I must say the result will depend on the basis of which team play better on the day," said Dravid, who is leading a relatively young team.

"We know how well Bangladesh played in the World Cup but there is a very clear message for them that we came here to play hard, hard cricket, a kind of cricket that should give a lot of enjoyment to millions of fans who not only enjoy the game but also love it," said Shastri, who took over after Australian coach Greg Chappell resigned after the World Cup debacle.

The Indian team left the airport amidst tight security and had also skipped the scheduled training at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the afternoon. They'll have their first practice session at the venue today.

SQUAD
Rahul Dravid (Captain), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Utthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar and Dinesh Mongia.