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India, Pakistan set to resume cricket rivalry
Players are warming up and fans can't stop talking as the two get ready for 1st Test today, writes Pradeep Magazine.
The winter has mellowed. The trees are shedding their leaves and summer is approaching. Mohali, like its adjacent city of Chandigarh, is a quiet, peaceful place where even the sound of the breeze can be heard loud and clear. In a place that can seduce you into somnolence, something important is happening.
No, one is not talking of just cricket here and the Test match that begins on Tuesday. One is talking of another major step that the two neighbouring countries are taking in cleansing their system of the hatred that has vitiated the sub-continent's atmosphere for over 50 years. A few thousand people — toddlers, the young and the old — are already here from Pakistan. And like Indians found to their great surprise last year when they crossed at Wagah, visitors from across the border, too, have been more than welcome here.
It is a sign of the changed times that the spectators from both sides will watch the cricket battle on the field without being at war with each other. Hopefully, in this peaceful environment, the cricket will be riveting and not one-sided, as predicted.
The young Pakistani side has the talent to become a world-beating side one day but as of today, they possibly lack the experience to handle pressure and a superior Indian side in Test matches. Inzamam may appear a bearded sage to the outside world but the best have buckled under lesser pressure, though this time around the air is not laced with tension and that should give his side reason to breathe freely.
The Indians, in contrast, are far more relaxed in home conditions and the defeat and controversies that dogged them against Australia do not seem to have damaged the fabric of the team.
Skipper Ganguly is not edgy, nor is he sulking. A broad smile sits easy on his visage and his team does appear to be gelling well. It’s hard to read people's minds but the mistrust that the defeat against Australia had created has, possibly, not scarred them much.
The greenish hue of the wicket has also not aroused any panicky reaction from the Indian captain as he does realise that against this Pakistani batting lime-up, his three seamers - Pathan, Zaheer and Balaji - can deliver if the wicket favours them. By all indications it will, as India look like going into the match with just a lone spinner. Who that spinner will be is a hard choice to make but given the way Kumble has swelled his bag of wickets, he should get the nod ahead of Harbhajan .
But whatever the permutations and combinations, there is a need for this Test to go down to the wire. For that to happen, Pakistan will have to play exceptionally well. And if they do, it will be good for the game of cricket.
India (from): Ganguly (captain), Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Kaarthick, Pathan, Kumble, Zaheer, Balaji, Harbhajan. Pakistan (from): Inzamam (captain), Younis Khan, Taufeeq Umar, Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Asim Kamal, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Danish Kaneria, Arshad Khan, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Md Sami, Md Khalil.
