The Indo-Pak Friendship Series, locked at 1-1, is set for a grand finale. The pressure levels on the players will be immense, and this is where experience counts. India has the upper hand here, and they will be highly motivated to win a Test series abroad.
The team theme for this series is "Playing with Passion for Pride". If they do that in the third Test, we can expect Sourav Ganguly to be the man holding aloft the Samsung Cup at the end of this match.
We are in for a fascinating game of cricket!
I have no doubt the Indian team will be trying to remember the reasons which brought it success in the past rather than dwell on the loss at Lahore. This team is mentally very strong, and they will be going into the Rawalpindi Test thinking about nothing else but a win. If this team plays to its potential, it is capable of beating any team in the world.
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It is good to see competition for the batting spots in the team. It will bring out the best from all players and keep them on their toes. In the bowling department, while Irfan Pathan, Laxmipathy Balaji and Anil Kumble pick themselves, it will be interesting to see whether Ashish Nehra comes in for Ajit Agarkar. I am sure the team management will select the best available eleven for the match to give the team every chance of clinching the series.
All decisions in this Test must be made after assessing the prevailing conditions rather than carry the cross of the last match. If the Indians feel they must bat first if they win the toss in Rawalpindi, that is exactly what they must do. They have to shut out whatever the media, ex-cricketers or commentators are advocating and take the road that it believes is the right one. There is a lot of speculation about the state of the pitch, and the Indian team will do well to ignore this and take it as it comes. We have the team to win in all conditions, and that is all that matters.
India's strength is its batting, and if Yuvraj and Sehwag open the innings, we are in for a treat of explosive batting. The key to success will be for them to see off the new ball, and remain unseparated at lunch. They can wrest the initiative away from Pakistan, and put them on the back foot. For that, however, they will have to blend caution with aggression.
Rahul Dravid is due for runs after failing in the first two Tests. He got a lot of runs in the ODI series, and has been the backbone of the batting line-up. It is also unwise to believe that Sachin Tendulkar or VVS Laxman could be worried about their form.
Tendulkar scored a century in the ODIs and never looked like getting out during his 194 in the Multan Test. I do not think he would lose any sleep over failures in Lahore. The same goes for Laxman. It is laughable when people suggest that he only seems to score against Australia. If a batsman scores against the best side in the world, it should be a matter of joy rather than one of worry. Only recently, he scored an all important one-day hundred against Pakistan when it mattered most. Ganguly's return adds more strength to the batting line-up, and also aggression on the field. India's batting line up is in good form, and far more experienced than their opponents.
The Pakistan batting has done reasonably well, with youngsters like Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed supporting Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-ul Haq. However, this is a crunch match, and the pressure will tell. They collapsed under pressure in the last ODI game in Lahore, and Pakistan lack the depth of experience in their batting line-up.
In the bowling department, Pathan, Balaji and Kumble have done very well for India. The Pakistan batsmen gave the impression in Lahore that they just did not want Kumble to make inroads. They played with utmost caution against him and took their chances against the others.
Kumble is nine wickets short of a major milestone of 400 Test wickets. The competitor that he is, he would be eager to scale the peak in this match!
Both Nehra and Agarkar are experienced bowlers, and whoever is picked will add to our bowling strength. If our batsmen put up a good total, the Indian bowlers can exert pressure from both ends, and can win the match for us by picking 20 wickets.
Pakistan's bowling attack suddenly looks a bit weak. There was a lot of talk before the series began that this would be a battle between India's batting and Pakistan's bowling. However, we now have a situation where Umar Gul is not playing, and, maybe, even Mohammad Sami may not play due to injury. This will be a major blow for Pakistan and will put a lot of pressure on Shoaib, who is not in the best form himself.
India's bowling line-up for this match looks just as good as, if not better than the Pakistani attack.
This match is the decider, and it rarely gets bigger than this.
