THE Indian team will be visiting Pakistan after a lapse of fourteen years, to participate in what would probably be a gruelling encounter. The track record overwhelmingly favours Pakistan who have won eight Tests as compared to India’s four while thirty have ended as draws. That our success rate is twice as compared to the arch rivals is largely due to the stewardship of the national team.
Out of our eight wins four have been under th dynamic leadership of Imran Khan, our best captain and player. Two of our wins were under Mushtaq Mohammad who was another very shrewd captain, and one each under Kardar and Wasim Akram.
The first series was an away tour in 1952 under Kardar, and India led by Lala Amarnath won 2-1. In 1955 Vinoo Mankad led the Indians on their first tour of Pakistan. The rival captain was Kardar and all Tests were drawn. In 1960 Fazal Mahmood led the side to India and the rival captain was Nari Contractor (of Charlie Griffith fame). Yet again, all the Tests ended as draws. In 1978 Bedi led the Indians to Pakistan and under Mushtaq we won the series 2-0. Thereafter, through a conspiracy Mushtaq, was deposed as captain and dumped from the team. Asif Iqbal led the team to India in 1979 on a disastrous tour which we lost 2-0. It was Asif’s ‘Waterloo’ and his career came to an end with the series.
In 1982 India toured Pakistan under Sunny Gavaskar and Imran was our captain. The tour was memorable one as Pakistan thrashed India, 3-0. It was on this tour that Imran look 40 wickets in the series and joined Botham in the exclusive club of players scoring a century and taking 10 wickets in the same match. It was also under Imran in 1987 that we secured our first and only series win while playing in India. Whereas Pakistan has won three Tests in India, our rivals have never won a Test in Pakistan.
Miandad, the master tactician, has been our most prolific scorer against India with an aggregate of 2228 runs, five centuries and fourteen fifties. He is followed by Zaheer who aggregated 1740 runs with six centuries and thirteen fifties. Our most successful bowler has been the great Imran Khan with a tally of 94 wickets, six hauls of five wickets in an innings and two of ten wickets in a match.
Whereas the past has been overwhelmingly in our favour this series will be an extremely testing one. India today boasts of one of the best batting lineup in the world. They have six world class batsmen in the form of Tendulkar, Dravid who is technically most correct, Ganguly, Laxman, Sehwag and Yuvraj.
Pakistan has two class batsmen, Inzamam and Youhana though the latter needs to be more consistent. We will also be relying on our young guns who have yet to display their potential best. A thing to ponder is the fact that why wasn’t Saeed Anwar considered? He was our only centurion in the last World Cup and that precious knock too, came against India. It was also against them that he rattled up his record 196. His presence would have been a great fillip to our batting. Moreover his very presence in the team would have had a psychological pressure on the Indians.
Saeed Anwar retired recently after being rightly disgusted with the previous establishment for sidelining him. The best this establishment could have done was to recall him and to give him a few matches to regain his touch. We need to be more caring about our national treasures.
India at present has a clear edge in batting. As such our bowlers will have to target their batsmen and will have to exploit their weaknesses. Hopefully the videos of their leading batsmen have been watched and strategies drawn up to tackle them. We have to have a game plan and need to be very focused. There is a tendency in our bowlers to go astray and this ruins the game plan. One often sees a field set for the off-side and wayward bowling on the on-side. This results is frustration for the bowler and the team, apart from taking the pressure off from the batsmen who in turn can score freely. This also ruins the game plan and leads to undesirable results.
A fast bowler must ideally concentrate on the off-stump, bowling at least four outswingers in an Over. One delivery should be an inswinger. If a fast bowler concentrates on bowling at least four outswingers in an Over on the off-stump on a line and length and with three slips and a gully in position, the edge from the bat is bound to come and wickets will tumble at regular intervals. Successful fast bowlers in the past and present adopted this strategy. Bowling to a line and length and to one’s field is the secret of success. Even a relatively mediocre bowler like Kapil Dev with an unflattering bowling average of 29.60 was successful because he bowled to an immaculate line and length and to his field.
The pace attacks of both teams are almost at par. Shoaib Akhtar can be good on his day but is not reliable. Sami is okay but Shabbir is still in the learning phase. Bowlers undergoing modification of their bowling action cannot be expected to deliver.
On the Indian side Irfan Pathan has come forward by leaps and bounds. The tour against Australia was his first one and initially he used to sit on the fence. When brought into bowl he was wayward. Enter Wasim Akram, and Irfan Pathan is a changed bowler. He too is a rookie and now bowls in the mould of Wasim. Indeed the one which comes in is identical to the ones bowled by Wasim. Coaching of Irfan Pathan could certainly have waited till after this crucial tour. Zaheer Khan will also be here and he too is a front line bowler and in the backup will be Ashish Nehra. The tourists will be missing Harbajhan Singh, Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar who are not coming in this series. That may provide some breather to our batsmen. All in all it should be a very absorbing series.
