Battle-scarred Ganguly and Akhtar have points to prove

Over the next few days, one could almost feel the intensity in the manner in which Ganguly went about trying out never-before-seen drills just to cope with the pace burst that he will have to encounter starting tomorrow.

As Pakistan’s tour of India opens with the November 5 Guwahati ODI, it’s the two illustrious old warhorses from either side— Akhtar and Ganguly—who will hog the limelight, one of them on a much-awaited comeback trail, the other looking to hold on to his place in the team for perhaps one last time. While the ageing former Indian captain is facing an ultimatum this time round—the message is to perform in Guwahati and Mohali or perish for good—his mercurial opponent Akhtar is finding himself on the verge of reinventing himself and rediscovering his touch at the age of 32.

The Dilip Vengsarkar-led selection panel dropped a bombshell on October 27, sacking Dravid for the Guwahati and Mohali one-dayers. In no time, the news was out that it was largely because the Colonel wanted to persist with Ganguly in the Pakistan series that the axe eventually fell on Dravid, and not on the left-hander, who too struggled bigtime on the fitness-and-fielding front against Australia. Equally modest was Ganguly’s performance in the 7-match ODI series against Australia, where he scored 127 runs from four outings at 31.75 runs.

Understandably, Ganguly showed up at the Eden the next day and got down to some frenetic fitness training sessions for the first time in over a year, even as the media looked on curiously. It was as if he was answering the BCCI’s ultimatum for shape-up-on-the-fitness-front-or-ship-out.

And when Graeme Smith & Co were taking a royal knocking from in-form Akhtar last Monday, Ganguly, who will open alongside Sachin Tendulkar in Guwahati, was seen facing a barrage of bouncers the whole afternoon at Eden, pressing into service two bowling machines. It was no surprise that he later caught up with the action on TV at the Eden, particularly Pakistan’s rejuvenated pace bowling display.

The other protagonist at the Guwahati clash, Akhtar, will be all too eager to have a go at Ganguly & Co, with the Indian batsmen still licking their wounds after the 4-2 thrashing at the hands of the Aussies.

Having last played an ODI in 2006 against England, the Pakistani fast bowler couldn’t have asked for a more rousing comeback in Lahore last Monday, although South Africa clinched the decider. The first ball of the day saw Akhtar’s bouncer crashing into Herschelle Gibbs’ helmet, and two balls later, another scorcher knocked Smith’s stumps down.

Staging a return for the umpteenth time, Akhtar finished with 4/43, and sent out a loud and clear message to the Indians—he is fit again, and in raging form. With a fit Umar Gul and the disciplined Sohail Tanvir for company, the stage is set for 32-year-old Akhtar to prove his critics wrong, and to make up for the ignominious send-off from the Twenty20 World Cup campaign that is the last fresh public memory of the pacer.

“We know that if Shoaib is fit and in form, he is an asset for the team for the series against India,” Pakistan’s selection committee chairman Salahuddin Ahmed recently said. Will Ganguly too join Dravid in the sidelines, or will Akhtar wreak havoc in perhaps the last of his comeback trails? We will know as the series unfolds.