Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar after arriving at the George Best Belfast City Airport on Wednesday. (AP)

Belfast: The 15-member Indian squad, led by captain Rahul Dravid, flew in here on Wednesday to play a three-match one-day International series against South Africa.

The squad, accompanied by cricket manager Chandu Borde, will begin its 80-day tour of the United Kingdom by playing the first match of the off-shore series against Ireland on Saturday.

After the series, India will travel to Scotland to take on Pakistan in a one-off ODI clash in Glasgow on July 3, the proceeds of which would go to the Prince Charles Charitable Trust.

The players would then move to England to take on the hosts in a three-Test series, which would be followed by seven one-dayers.

The squad is accompanied by bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh, apart from five members of the support staff, completing the 23-member touring party.

Before the team’s departure from Mumbai, Dravid promised a good show.

“If we play to our true potential, I think we can have a very good series.

“We have to play good cricket and maintain the performance right through the tour,” the Team India captain said.

On a personal note, too, he was also looking to make it memorable. “This is my last tour of England. I won’t be going back in four years’ time… I have to win the series to make it a memorable one for me.”

Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma will return after the ODI against Pakistan in Scotland.

The five Test specialists will then join the squad in England.

India's last tour of England, under Sourav Ganguly in 2002, saw them drawing the Test series 1-1 and winning the tri-series.

That success was built on the excellent form of the big three batsmen — Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid and Sourav — and Dravid stressed that the key to a good showing on this tour lay with the experienced batting line-up.