LAHORE, April 4: Pakistan cricket's pride, severely bruised by a resurgent Indian side, will have to restored beyond recognition to prevent the visitors from achieving a historic hat trick of milestones when the vital second Test gets under wayat the Qadhafi Stadium on Monday.
India came from behind to clinch the One-day International series and outplayed their arch-rivals in the Multan Test toearn two unique landmarks on Pakistan soil.
A triumph in the second Test will give India their first-ever Test series win in Pakistan and provide Indian cricket the biggest boost since Kapil Dev's team upset all odds to clinch the World Cup in England in 1983.
If form and the evidence of the ODI series and the first Test performances are any sort of a yardstick then India have the golden opportunity to rewrite history by completing an unprecedented hat trick over a demoralised Pakistan, who have yet to recover from the Multan disaster.
In Multan, Pakistan were utterly blown off by a professionally disciplined India in every facet of the game. To bounce back from such a humiliating defeat will be a mighty difficult task for Inzamamul Haq's men.
By winning the one-day rubber and the first Test, Indi aproved beyond doubt that they are the better team and exposed the limitations of the Pakistan's outfit, especially their highly over-rated pace attack which was nothing but mediocre in the Multan Test.
If the bowling was ordinary, the batting, particularly in the second innings, was spineless and the fielding too shoddy for a Test side. The Pakistan team management as usual blamed the pitch and the umpires for the Multan debacle, but the bitter truth is that the current team is not good enough and easily buckles when put under pressure.
Prediction is a hazardous business in cricket, especially when it is about Pakistan, arguably the world's most unpredictable side that relies mostly on a few individuals to win matches.
Pakistan depended too much on its pacers to deliver against India's batting might, but the fact is that the highly-pampered Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed are not in the same class as Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
The current trio on a given day might come up trumps and one hopes for the sake of Pakistan cricket they silence their detractors with a match-winning performance here.
The Pakistan's pacers problem have been that they tried to intimidate the Indians with brute pace and failed. On the contrary, the Indian new ball operators bowled within their limitations sticking to the line and length and that undid the Pakistan batting even on a docile Multan track.
All signs are that the Qadhafi Stadium track will assist the seamers with the pitch having grass. But, how the pitch will ultimately look on Monday morning and behave when the first ball is bowled is anybody's guess.
The home team is certain to make two changes. Young wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria will be replacing the injured Moin Khan and the axed Saqlain Mushtaq.
India too are forced to effect at least one change from the Multan Test-winning XI, with Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar vying to replace fellow paceman Zaheer Khan, who has been ruled out of the series because of injury.
Teams (from):
PAKISTAN: Inzamamul Haq (captain), Imran Farhat, Taufiq Umar,Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Misbahul Haq, Asim Kamal, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Imran Nazir.
