The Hindu : Sport : Time to get into battle-mode again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 02, 2005

Sport

Sport

Time to get into battle-mode again

By Sourav Ganguly

If you are looking for a catchword for the ensuing India-Pakistan one-day series, here's my choice — hectic. The action will be hot and heavy in very humid conditions. And mind you, it will be hectic off the field as well as we traverse the entire country — Kochi, Vizag, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Delhi, in quest of glory.

The amount of travelling cricketers of either side have to do will push them to the limits of their physical endurance, but the international calendar being what it is these days, there is hardly any choice.

The ODI itinerary is definitely a tough one, but that is par for the course for a touring side these days. It couldn't have been easy for Pakistan to play a warm-up one-dayer in Hyderabad against India `A' less than 48 hours after the Bangalore Test ended. They had little time to relax and stretch their tired limbs before getting into the ODI series. No wonder some of their senior players didn't play that game.

Most of us, including myself, rushed back home after the Bangalore Test to take a very short break. It should help immensely. Now it's time to get into battle-mode, again.

A set of six ODIs, bunched together within a fortnight is what we are looking at. It will be a bit like hit or miss kind of situation. After a drawn and closely fought Test series, both teams would be looking to grab early advantage to set the tone for the rest of the contests.

It feels a bit nostalgic to be back in Kochi, for this is where I started off as India's captain five years ago against South Africa in 2000. Of course, I had led India earlier, in the odd match or two, but Kochi was the place where the captaincy came with an official seal. It was a close match, but we won.

I have come a long way since then, both as a captain as well as a cricketer. I was much younger then, more prone to excitement. I am more mature now and can handle pressures better.

These are different times; the ground realities are different, too. But we can draw inspiration from our past record here, which is very good, for we have beaten top teams like South Africa and Australia at this venue.

Both sides will look a bit different with the induction of few `new' faces. Yuvraj and Kaif are hardly new to international cricket, having already made their mark. Wicket-keeper M.S. Dhoni is relatively new, but holds plenty of promise.

Ours is a great mixture of youth and experience and if we can serve the right cocktail, it will be heady stuff for the fans.

(CafeCricket)

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