First big win: hearts and minds

There will be no goodwill on the field, though, once the series begins. Few quarters will be given, no leniency shown, the odd hit below the belt will appear.

From the vendor to the veteran cricketer, everyone believes India start favourites. They have not traditionally been very good at playing front-runners and they will know that assessing Pakistan is, if anything, far more difficult than assessing the latest budget — what is immediately apparent isn’t always the whole story. They have been the greatest enigma of our time, leaving their fight behind when they go to Australia, gathering it from every nook and corner when they play India.

They would be a touch unprepared having to start in a calming, spiritual, soggy hill-station. They succeeded in getting the Dalai Lama away though, in all fairness, what he had to do with a cricket match is a bit mysterious.

Meanwhile, India’s batsmen were getting the best possible preparation for the series — time in the middle. Virender Sehwag has hit form at the right time and he will be crucial to India’s chances because he takes the new ball head on. So does Gautam Gambhir, who has a few runs behind him and is the almost forgotten sixth man in the line-up!

Rahul Dravid got runs in the Challenger, VVS Laxman a timely half-century at Indore and Sourav Ganguly spent a long time in the middle reminding Bangladesh that the only thing they have in common with him is the language, not even the dialect.

That leaves Sachin Tendulkar. Ganguly has talked of him roaring back to form in Bangladesh but he knows that words can sometimes run ahead of reality. Tendulkar made a hesitant start there and it was only once that was overcome that he started grinding Bangladesh down. A few years ago another word might have been used.

His best innings post the elbow injury actually came on the third morning in Mumbai against Australia when he and Laxman made a terrible pitch look benign and put together an aggressive, eventually match-winning partnership. It took him three innings to get there. Since returning from Bangladesh he has had nine balls of first class cricket behind him. He could not be happy with that.

And yet, he opted to have Irfan Pathan bat at number three when West Zone played South. Surely he should have given himself the opportunity of finding his groove but to think that way is not to recognise Tendulkar the cricketer to whom winning a cricket match must come first.

Now he must draw on his huge fund of experience, hope the first few balls go exactly the way he imagines them to, that the pitch has true bounce.

Even the greatest in the world need time in the middle, some can get by occasionally without it but that is sub-optimal.

It is interesting as well that Ganguly must recognise Laxman as his pick to score most runs in the series. If he does, we will remember it for a very long time but Ganguly, an astute leader of men, is aware that Laxman is feeling the pinch a bit, that maybe he is insecure. In saying what he has Ganguly has just told Laxman he doesn’t care what the world thinks, that he has the captain’s backing.

Crucial to India’s effort, though, will be how numbers seven and eight bat. Dinesh Kaarthick has been disappointing at seven and he must know he is a far better batsman than he has allowed himself to be.

I wonder if Ganguly will make a statement by pushing Pathan one step up, vote of confidence in one man, a reminder call to another. If one of those two is in and can get the lower order to bat around them, 50 or 60 should be possible for the last three wickets.

If India bat well, they cannot lose because the bowling will not let them. And if Kolkata and Bangalore open their hearts, cricket cannot lose either. Forget the nonsense that’s taken place over the last few weeks, that was off the field. I cannot wait for the action to begin on it.