Pace power: India on a high

Leave out the statistics, India look a speed-heavy unit, writes Kadambari Murali.

On Saturday, the Indian squad for the first Test against Pakistan was announced in Mumbai. There weren't any surprises as far as the list of pacemen went. Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra and Lakshmipathy Balaji duly made the grade and while there had been some debate over whether the selectors would go with three pacemen and three spinners instead of four-two, the selection committee was always planning on the latter. Even on India's (usually) flat, low, slow tracks, the Nagpur experience notwithstanding.

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This emphasis on a pace-heavy attack on home ground has got to be a great change for India. In what is maybe a first, you have an Indian pace attack that, in any combination, is being touted as being better than Pakistan's, with or without Shoaib Akhtar. Even while no one's disputing that the spin tandem of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh will be vital to India's interests, suddenly, India's pacemen are the aces in the pack.

And what's more interesting, is that for once, each one of our injury-prone quartet, is fighting fit, not fighting to stay fit. Look at the past couple of weeks, or few months in Zaheer's case. After a terrible first half of the year following his hasty returns from Australia, Pakistan --- he had injury after hamstring injury in quick succession, he looked like he'd put on weight and seemed generally unfit, he was even dropped from the one-day squad ostensibly to recover from injury --- he's taken himself in hand and fought back. He played domestic games to prove his fitness when he was out, even playing club-level tournaments in August, he played six Tests on the trot, didn't collapse in any and the lean, trim look makes him seem far fitter than he's perhaps ever looked.