CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 23: He played alongside them in the highly entertaining Indian Premier League. Now, Ross Taylor will attempt to cut the mighty Indians down to size with his aggressive batting.

The New Zealand top order bat admits the visitors are strong on paper and are on a different plane. "India have world-class players but when you play at this level, probably once you have played a few games, you put all that aside. I am sure some of our players will be a little bit star-struck early on but I am sure they will be fine come game day," the 24-year-old said.

Taylor knows that will not be so easy. "Taking into consideration their consistency over the last 12-18 months, India would be the best team going around in all forms of the game. They have beaten Australia consistently. Definitely, I think they are the world’s best team at the moment and it is exciting for us to play against them and see where we really are," he said.

However, the highly competitive ODI series (drawn 2-2) against Australia recently should stand them in good stead, Taylor feels. "I think we can gain a lot from that. Obviously, Australia being one of the best teams in the world and to beat them on their home track was very satisfying. To go over there with the team we had — a very inexperienced side — but the youngsters stepped up. I still think we have got a little bit of room to improve and hopefully we can show that in this series," he said.

"I don’t think our Twenty20 side has been confirmed. I wouldn’t say this team is guaranteed to go to the World Cup. This is a good time to try out a few things — game plans and what not — but I still am not sure that anyone knows the right way to play Twenty20 cricket at the moment.

"As like the 50-over stuff, it took 10-15 years for someone to master it and the right way to play. It is evolving," he said. Taylor, who looked up to Tendulkar while growing up, said.