The Hindu : Sport : Captains express guarded optimism

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Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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Sport

Captains express guarded optimism

Nandita Sridhar

It would be a toss-up between Sehwag and Gambhir for a place in the eleven

Guwahati: Twenty20 success seems part of ancient history after India and Pakistan spent an earthbound month at home. Australia bettered India in a hostile series, while Pakistan’s implosion in the face of a possible win handed South Africa the one-day series.

How much the preceding series will have a bearing on this one remains to be seen. Pakistan’s would be the more difficult loss to digest, but captain Shoaib Malik said that it wouldn’t affect the team. “We did play well in the series despite losing. We’ve learnt a lot from our mistakes,” he said.

Indian captain M.S. Dhoni shunned hyperboles and metaphors, resorting instead to clichés. “I have played many matches against Pakistan. There’s not much of a difference between captaining against Pakistan and any other team. It’s like any other match,” he said, also adding that frequent clashes between the two might have helped in easing some of the pressure on the players.

When asked if Rahul Dravid’s absence made the middle-order fragile, the captain said, “are you telling me that the other batsmen are not reliable?”

Tough task

He did add that finding a replacement for Dravid or even for Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble would be hard. The team composition will be decided on Monday morning, with Dhoni revealing that it would be a toss-up between Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for a place in the eleven. “It will be a difficult choice for us since both have been doing well,” said the captain.

The Indians were hit badly by their fielding lapses against Australia, a fact that the captain acknowledged. “We have a good batting side, we are a good bowling side. We are looking to improve our fielding and running between the wickets.”

Main threat

Shoaib Akhtar’s presence will bulk up the Pakistani bowling.

The paceman is a potential wrecker when not doubling up as a cricketing outlaw. His performance against South Africa in the final one-dayer has set him up well for the one-day and the Test series.

Without Mohammad Asif, Akhtar and Umar Gul will be expected to carry the attack, with some of Shahid Afridi’s disturbing spinners likely to be summoned in the middle-overs.

Harbhajan Singh and towards the end, Murali Kartik, were the standout performers against Australia. Zaheer Khan and R.P. Singh had a mixed series against Australia, but the latter tasted recent success against Pakistan.

India’s pace attack has considerably improved since the Pakistanis last toured India.

The pitch seems hard, and will need all the support it can get from the short boundaries for the curator’s 300-plus prediction to come off.

Small ground

“This is one of the grounds where we could have extended the boundary ropes. It’s quite a small ground, especially since both sides have spinners who will have a big impact on the game.

“Definitely they will suffer a bit if it turns out to be a flat wicket. 60-65 yard outfield is a worrying factor for the bowlers,” said Dhoni on the shrunk playing area.

The official word from the Pakistani team on the Emergency back home and its effect on the players was that the team’s entire focus would be on cricket.

“We are here to play cricket and focus on cricket. Cricket will go on as scheduled,” said the statement.

The teams (from):

India: M.S Dhoni (capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, R.P. Singh, S. Sreesanth, Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh

Pakistan: Shoaib Malik (capt.), Younis Khan, Abdur Rehman, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Anjum, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul and Yasir Hameed.

Umpires: Amish Saheba and Ian Gould. Match Referee: Roshan Mahanama.

Match starts at 8.30 a.m.

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