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| India start as favourites for Tests |
| Sunil Gavaskar |
| The five one-day games between India and Pakistan showed that on good pitches, both teams did not have the bowling strength to dismiss the other team. So the batsmen had a good time scoring runs without too much to worry about. In Test matches, it may be a little different, with the bowlers looking to get the batsmen out rather then just saving runs. There will be a different set of bowlers as well for both teams, with Danish Kaneria and the nearly-man Mohammad Sami joining the Pakistan team. India will be bolstered by the return of Anil Kumble, but how he handles himself as the main bowler will give an indication of how he is taking the captaincy pressure. Full Coverage: Pakistan in India 2007 The Pakistanis have suffered in the Tests because they did not have a steady opening pair. With Salman Butt walking out to bat with a different partner in each game, Pakistan struggled to get off to a start, and that meant there was constant pressure on Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf. Butt himself batted splendidly, but the lack of cohesion in the team could be seen by the observation by Yousuf that he should have rotated the strike a little bit more in his century innings. Surely, that kind of a comment would have been better in the dressing-room rather than the public domain. Butt is a likeable young man and has shown exemplary restraint by not reacting, for he too could have questioned Yousuf's running between the wickets and his fielding, which cost Pakistan several runs. Fielding is an area that Pakistan need to work on like the Indians, for there are some basic errors that even schoolboys will not make. Best Sports images of the week | Pakistan in India – Tour Itinerary India were the better team because they had a better balance. Though Irfan Pathan has not quite got back that deadly incoming ball to the right-hander, his thoughtfulness added to the variety, and with his spirited batting and zestful fielding, he gave India just the player it needed at number seven. India also got off to better starts with both bat and ball, and were thus able to put Pakistan under pressure. Tendulkar and Yuvraj were in awesome form and made batting look ridiculously easy, and Dhoni too chipped in with some useful scores in just about every match. Dhoni and Pathan add a lot of muscle to India's batting, and they can thus play with five bowlers, which makes for a good combination. They will need to look at the runs that they concede in the last ten overs or so and if they can bowl like debutant Praveen Kumar bowled the final over of the Jaipur game, then they will be able to control the flow of runs that is expected in the slog overs. Winning the last one-dayer will give Pakistan a lot of confidence, but then each day is different, and a rested Zaheer and R.P. Singh could well be a more menacing proposition. So of course will be Shoaib Akhtar for Pakistan. India will start the Test series as the favourites, as they always do at home, but Pakistan will not be short of motivation, especially with what is going on in their home. Professional Management Group |
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