Depleted welcome awaits Pak

Any Pakistan match in India is electric. The welcome needs to match the occasion. But the DDCA8217;s indecisiveness was much...

Any Pakistan match in India is electric. The welcome needs to match the occasion. But the DDCA8217;s indecisiveness was much visible in its preparations for the practice match against Pakistan 8212; two workers were painting the white sightscreen black, shoe brush in hand, for the one-off match on November 2. Little did they realise that it has to be re-painted white for the Ranji match against Rajasthan that starts two days later.

Since the practice match is to be played on a side wicket, they could have done with black curtains instead, leaving the moveable sightscreen alone. But decisions at the DDCA are often disjointed, quite like the situation within the Delhi team.

For starters, Ishant Sharma too will not be available for the match and that8217;s as much a disappointment for the Shoaib Malik-led side as for the home team. Pakistan, looking to shake off their disappointing home series against South Africa, were looking for quality practice in their only match before the first ODI but Ishant8217;s absence coupled with Virender Sehwag8217;s withdrawal following his father8217;s demise has already made the rubber look one-sided. Ashish Nehra had made himself unavailable.

Interestingly, the chairman of selectors had told Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir to be skipper to play the practice match so as to get a fair measure of the Pakistan pace attack and get the two openers some vital match practice. The two were to join the two-day camp in Kolkata on November 2.

Meanwhile, Ishant8217;s shoulder injury has come as a last-minute blow to the Delhi team; he sustained it while diving in the outfield during the recent Challenger Series and though team physio exuded confidence of making Ishant fit in time, the team management is deciding against fielding him. He gets two extra days of rest before their Ranji opener.

The pitch for the practice tie is expected to a typical Kotla wicket 8212; hard, with consistent bounce and likely to favour the bat except for the first hour. There was quite a lot of grass and moisture on the wicket today, but the heavy roller and mower will be applied with full effect in the next 24 hours.