Davis Cup captain Jeremy Bates yesterday urged his ageing linchpins Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski to sweep aside Austria before ending two decades of failure on the global stage.

Henman, 29, and Rusedski, 30, provided the backbone for the 4-1 victory over Luxembourg in the European principality this weekend.

The comfortable success - marred only by Arvind Parmar's defeat against Gilles Muller - clinched Britain's place in yesterday's draw for the World Group qualifiers.

Bates' team were seeded, thereby avoiding big guns Australia and Germany, and paired with Austria, where they will travel for the September 24-26 showdown which is likely to be played on clay.

Victory against Gunter Bresnik's side, trounced 5-0 by the USA in the World Group first round in February, will clinch a place in the 2005 World Group and the chance to claim Britain's first win at the top level since a 4-1 victory over Spain in 1986.

Bates yesterday issued a rallying cry to his star men and admitted time is running out if they are to achieve success.

The captain believes Rusedski's absence while he successfully overturned a positive drugs test verdict has extended his career but, asked if next year would be Henman's last chance for a world group victory, said: ''Not necessarily.

''I haven't spoken to Tim about it. I don't know how long he's going to keep on playing but I think he still has two or three years of tennis left in him.

''If he makes a decision about when he wants to stop playing Davis Cup, everyone would respect that. Maybe that's what he is thinking.

''We need to have one last attempt at it as Greg's a year older than Tim.

''But I don't think anything is conclusive yet as if we get in the world group and win a round, I think people's attitude about retirement would change straight away.''

Henman, ranked eighth in the world, and Rusedski, now outside the top 100 due to his break from the sport, are likely to face Jurgen Melzer and Stefan Koubek in September.

Melzer, 22, is ranked 59th and beat Henman in the Miami Masters last month, while Koubek, 27, is ranked 79.

Austria memorably reached the world group semi-finals in 1990, when Thomas Muster was world number one, but have since failed to reach those heights.

Bates will be especially keen to reverse the result of the last tie in Austria in 1988, when he lost in both singles and doubles in a 5-0 defeat.

The captain, who did make amends in the 1991 home victory, and said: ''Our goal is certainly to get through a round in the 2005 world group.

''That's something we haven't done for a long time - but we have to get back into the world group first.

''And, if you want to be in the world group, you have to beat countries like these. They're all tough matches.

''I have the utmost respect for Austria and think they're a very good team.

''I'd ideally like to have been at home but I'm satisfied with the draw.''