Pakistan start off as favourites in their one-off one-day international against India to celebrate the BCCI’s Platinum Jubilee

S Rajesh01-Sep-2005

Shoaib Akhtar: can he repeat the destruction he wrought at this venue in 1999?© AFP
In this day of dime-a-dozen international fixtures, a one-off one-day international would on most occasions be brushed aside as a non-event. However, things are different when the two teams involved are India and Pakistan, the event is the BCCI’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, and the venue is the Eden Gardens. It’s festival time for both communities, with Diwali and Eid being celebrated this weekend, and a day-night one-dayer between the two traditional rivals at one of the largest cricket grounds is just the event to get the adrenalin rushing.About six months back, India would have gone into a match against Pakistan as favourites. However, since winning both the Test and the one-day series in Pakistan, the Indians have undergone a collective slump, suffering demoralising losses in four one-day tournaments, and then being thrashed by Australia in the Test series. During this period, they lost three times out of three to Pakistan, who have themselves been on the upswing since Bob Woolmer took charge as coach. Form books usually count for little in any India-Pakistan match, but going into this game Pakistan will fancy their chances of making it four in a row.The timing of this match is itself quite unusual for the Indians. They finished a Test match just a week ago, and go into another one in a week’s time. Sandwiched in between is a high-pressure one-dayer, and it is anybody’s guess how the team – especially the batsmen – will cope with the demands. Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman finally managed some runs in the Mumbai Test, but it would be a huge exaggeration to say that all the batsmen are back in form. Rahul Dravid has been scratchy, while Sourav Ganguly is just back from an injury and was far from convincing in the Ranji Trophy game he played last weekend.There’s been speculation in the Indian media that Ganguly wanted to open the batting with Tendulkar for this match, but it makes little sense for the Indian think-tank to disturb the batting position of the one batsman who has been among the runs – Virender Sehwag was by far the most successful batsman against Australia, and deserves to stay at the top of the order. The other dilemma for India is the usual one – should Dravid double up as the wicketkeeper? Dinesh Karthik was impressive behind the stumps at Mumbai, but the chances are that he’ll be manning the drinks cart on Saturday.Pakistan’s batting has usually been their Achilles heel, but there have been signs that the support cast is beginning to pull its weight to bolster a line-up which had been held together for so long by Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana. Shoaib Malik has become a vital cog at No. 3, while Younis Khan’s century in the Karachi Test against Sri Lanka suggested that he might be returning to form.Pakistan certainly hold an edge in the bowling department, despite Irfan Pathan’s return. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami have combined raw pace with much better direction and control of late, while Malik and Abdul Razzaq have filled in superbly in the middle overs.Not only does recent form favour Pakistan, they’ll also have fond memories of playing at Eden Gardens. They have won both their one-dayers here against India – including a famous victory in 1986-87, when Salim Malik blitzed 72 off 36 balls – and in their most recent Test there, in 1998-99, Shoaib Akhtar nailed Dravid and Tendulkar with successive deliveries, and Pakistan eventually won by 46 runs.Speaking to the media on Thursday, Inzamam made an unusual statement: “Winning or losing does not matter on this occasion. The important thing is to build relations.” That might be a sentiment in keeping with the general goodwill that each country has shown the other in the last few months, but one suspects that neither team will be in such a generous mood when the umpires call play at 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon.India (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 4 VVS Laxman, 5 Rahul Dravid (wk), 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mohammad Kaif, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Zaheer Khan.Pakistan (probable) 1 Imran Farhat, 2 Shahid Afridi, 3 Shoaib Malik, 4 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Yousuf Youhana, 6 Younis Khan, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Kamran Akmal (wk), 9 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Mohammad Sami.