The former Kiwi captain has always had an eye for the unusual. Rewind your memory to the 1992 World Cup, when he had used off-spinner Deepak Patel with the new ball.

A query about their next match and future course revealed that the mind of an explorer was intact. "We are still building our own ways, combination and communication and our tactics. It is getting clearer by the day. We are treating tomorrow like we are playing the team in blue. Every team has got a colour.

“We are not concentrating on reputations -- every side is capable.  "We are trying to dehumanise the opposition as much as possible so that we can concentrate on what we can do and try to knock off as many colours as possible! We are not too much into reputation," Crowe said here on Friday.

But Crowe admitted that it was not as simple as that. "It took three or four days to get the management group together, get the infrastructure in place so that we could get the communication clearly to the players. We got a good infrastructure in place and the players are all comfortable in the new environment, the meetings have been productive," he explained.

Losing the first game against Kolkata Knight Riders, Crowe said, was a timely wake-up call for them and they had learned a lot from the match. "We took a massive dose of learning from that match, not only in our bowling but also in our batting. We responded by showing character in Mumbai, where it was a team effort. That is probably going to be our style. It's going to be a thinking man's team led by the astute Dravid."

Crowe believed that the addition of Dale Steyn and Anil Kumble will further fortify their side in the coming days.

"We like the idea that we are getting stronger every week because we will have more good players coming in.

Steyn will come on Sunday, and hopefully, Kumble, on Monday. We got a good report on Nathan Bracken's fitness and he should be in early May. While the other sides are losing some outstanding cricketers, we are going to look pretty good in May," he added.