Confident India take on Pakistan without injured Ganguly
By Tanvir Ahmad
MULTAN, March 27: Saurav Ganguly has failed to recover from the lower back injury sustained in the last one-day match and Rahul Dravid will lead India against Pakistan in the first Test
, beginning at the Multan Cricket Stadium here from Sunday.
India have yet to win a Test series in Pakistan since their first visit to this country in 1954-55. Pakistan have won two - in 1978-79 and 1982-83 - while the rest have been drawn. India last visited Pakistan in 1989-90 in which all the four Tests were drawn.
The resumption of Tests has come in the wake of a welcome thaw in Indo-Pakistan relations.
Dravid told reporters in his pre-match news conference that he and his team are here to write a new chapter in the Pakistan-India cricketing relations and win the Test series as well.
This will be the second time Dravid will be leading India. Previously he led against New Zealand which was drawn.
Dravid and his men appeared buoyed and confident. The 3-2 victory in the one-day series seems to have done a world of good and inspired all the players. If one was to assess their condition their body language at the nets on Saturday was confirmation of their will to win.
The arrival of two experienced bowlers - Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar has also helped boost their confidence. Vangipurappu Laxman returned to form just at the right time by hitting a polished 107 in the fifth one-dayer.
Sachin Tendulkar is due for a big score. He has one hundred under his belt in the one-day series. Then they have two stylish batsmen in Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, both capable of taking head on the best of attack.
Dravid on Saturday announced the names of 13 players from whom the final line-up will be announced on Sunday morning. Apart from Ganguly, spinner Ramesh Powar has dropped. Kumble is certain to be in the playing eleven keeping in view his convincing performance against Pakistan in the past.
But the Indians may like to include three seamers keeping in mind that the Pakistanis are not so vulnerable against spin.
Pakistan will have to do a lot better than their performance in the one-dayers. Lots of improvement in required in the bowling and fielding departments. They will not only have to hold the catches but convert the half chances into full.
The ground fielding in the last match in Lahore was far from satifactory. So were the field placings. Quite often the bowlers were bowling against the field given to them. That showed lack of communication and coordination between the captain and the bowler. Inzamamul Haq, the Pakistan captain, will have to keep that weakness in mind while setting the field.
Pakistan's bowling has been over-rated of late. The local media has quite often tried to portray Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami as unplayable. They are not.
But they are good bowlers and capable of winning a Test match if they bowl within their limitations. Wides will be no problem but they will have be extra careful about over-stepping. One feels that the main factor why Pakistan lost the one-day series was the huge number of wides and no-balls.
Pakistan, like India may opt for a spinner. Saqlain Mushtaq has been out of action for a long period of time. Danish Kaneria may be preferred over his more experienced colleague.
Inzamam may like to open with Taufiq Umar and Imran Farhat. Both are very promising and deserve to be given more chances. It was unfair to have forgotten Taufiq's hundred in the warm-up match in Lahore on March 10. Then he was recalled for the last and deciding encounter after sitting out in four matches.
Any batsman would come under pressure. So was Taufiq who dropped two catches which in the end proved fatal. Imran Farhat looked good in the first one-dayer. But then he was also forgotten. This approach with youngsters in particular has always proved costly.
The Multan Cricket Stadium wicket is just another one seen all over the sub-continent: Completely bald, hard and shiny. It is to be seen how much turn it is going to offer to the spinners but not surely on the first day.
This will be third Test match to be played at this ground, the first between Pakistan and India. The first was played between Pakistan and Bangladesh in March 2001-02 in the Asian Test Championships. The second was played only last year, also against Bangladesh. Pakistan had won both the Test - a good omen if none believes in omens.
The weather in Multan is pleasant and is predicted to remain so during the next five days.
Teams (from):
PAKISTAN: Taufiq Umar, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Inzamamul Haq (captain), Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq, Moin Khan, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Misbahul Haq, Umar Gul, Asim Kamal, Danish Kaneria.
