Tendulkar ton no distraction: Dhoni

Sachin Tendulkar shares a laugh with Virender Sehwag (L) during India's training session at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi yesterday. India will play West Indies in the first Test from today.Photo: AFP

India will not lose focus amid the hype over Sachin Tendulkar's eagerly awaited 100th hundred in the three-Test series against the West Indies starting on Sunday, said skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Tendulkar's bid for an unprecedented century of centuries has been the talking point ever since he cracked his 99th international hundred against South Africa at the World Cup in March.
"What we try to do is to be there in the present and not too much in the future. It's important to prepare ourselves as individuals," Dhoni told reporters on Saturday.
"Of course, it is a milestone Sachin will achieve in this game or some other game. Let him get the ton and then we will talk about it. We are thinking about how we are preparing for this series.
"Of course when he gets it, we will celebrate with him. Hopefully, he gets it here and then we will speak about it."
The brilliant Tendulkar already holds four batting world records -- most runs in Tests (14,965) and one-day internationals (18,111) and most hundreds in Tests (51) and one-dayers (48).
India go into the opening Test in New Delhi with an inexperienced bowling attack in the absence of injured paceman Zaheer Khan and axed off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, but Dhoni said he was confident the newcomers would deliver.
Paceman Ishant Sharma and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha are the only bowlers with Test experience, while spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Rahul Sharma and seamers Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav have yet to play a Test.
"Some of these (newcomers) have played one-day cricket, so they have gained a fair amount of exposure. We are expecting at least two bowlers to make their Test debuts," revealed Dhoni.
SQUADS
WEST INDIES (FROM): Darren Sammy (captain), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh, Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Kirk Edwards, Keiran Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford.
INDIA (FROM): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Rahul Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron.