The irony is hard to miss. Camped in India’s best-planned, systematic city, the national cricket team was a picture of chaos and confusion. A new captain, a pitch that could favour the visitors, a change in the batting line-up and the heavy burden of pressure added up to an interesting five days ahead. Saurav Ganguly’s abscess not having fully healed, Rahul Dravid is set to make his debut as Test captain. And the empty slot left by Ganguly’s absence from the side could mean a debut at this level for Yuvraj Singh — a special occasion, since this is his home ground. Facts and figures • Rahul Dravid will become 28th India captain in Test cricket when he leads his team for the first time in the second Test against New Zealand at Mohali starting tomorrow. • CK Nayudu was the first Indian captain in Test cricket. He led India in four Tests — lost three and drew one. • India achieved their first victory under the captaincy of Lala Amarnath who led India in 15 Test matches. Under him India scored an innings and 8 runs victory over England at Madras in 1951-52. It was India’s 25th Test. •Mohali Test will be Dravid’s 71st Test match. S.PERVEZ QAISER However, India — who will go in with six batsmen and four bowlers — have a tough task ahead. This is a must-win game, because a drawn series would leave New Zealand the moral victors and India the morale losers. Indeed, the tourists appear to have found their feet on Indian wickets — or is it the waning of powers of India’s current spinners? While Ganguly’s omission from the playing XI was an unforeseen problem, the missed victory at Motera wasn’t. All those yoga sessions, expert coaching, motivational talks came to naught in the absence of a focused, centralised strategic plan. After the national selectors named three spinners in the side, the curators prepared a track where even the world’s leading spinners — Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Daniel Vettori — didn’t make much headway. Mohali Revisited October 10-14 (1999) INDIA (First Innings): 83 all out (J Srinath 20, S Tendulkar 18; D Nash 6/27) NEW ZEALAND (First innings): 215 all out (C Spearman 51, N Astle 45; J Srinath 6/45) INDIA (Second Innings): 505 for 3 declared (R Dravid 144, S Tendulkar 126, D Gandhi 75; D Vettori 2/171) NEW ZEALAND (Second Innings): 251 for 7 (S Fleming 73, C Spearman 35; A Kumble 3/42) Match Drawn This time, the pitch report from the Indian camp was ‘‘good and sporting’’, as Dravid put it. All this has put the Kiwis in pretty much a win-win situation and skipper Stephen Fleming had fewer crease lines on his forehead today. Dismissing the changes in the rival camp — ‘‘That doesn’t concern us. It neither changes our strategy or the team line up’’ — he indicated that there would be no let-up in their minute preparations. Things look up for them. The cool weather and a familiar pitch, which the curator said had ‘‘pace and bounce’’, prompted Fleming to say his team now had the confidence to counter the conditions. However, the fact that he has delayed the decision to replace off-spinner Paul Wiseman with pacer Ian Butler just proves that Fleming hasn’t dropped his guard. It would make things easier, especially after Motera, he said, but added, ‘‘Your perception of pace and bounce is quite different from ours.’’ Well, that makes it three different opinions about the same track. Pace and bounce, not exactly pace and bounce in the Indian sense and Dravid’s cryptic ‘‘good and sporting’’. Certainly an interesting five days ahead.
