At the Pindi Cricket Stadium, India and Pakistan will clash for the 50th time in their Test history, and it can be argued that their rivalry has finally come of age. With the series levelled at one each, the stakes don’t get any higher than this. Pakistan are striving to stave off their first home defeat to India — and India are finetuning their batting order to clinch a rare away series win. Both, be sure, will be chasing a result.Much good has happened this past month. Cricket has often seemed to be an excuse, a starting point for normalisation, a reason for two estranged peoples to share space and experience. Now, here, in this old cantonment town, the benefits of lowered barriers are finally being discerned in the cricket. Both teams have buried their fear of failure at the hands of the other, and are making confident bids for victory.For India, the occasion is huge. They have much to prove and must be keenly aware that such opportunities do not come by every summer. They stand on the cusp of a rare series clincher abroad. The locale — the fact that the site of the contest is Pakistan — simply accentuates the moment.At Multan, India won their first Test on Pakistani soil. The weight of that lacuna in their cricketing feats has lifted. In Lahore they lost — but they lost not because they caved in to mental pressure, as was their wont earlier, but because Pakistan outplayed them on those four days. In that loss could be found an inability to wield the winning momentum but, nonetheless, they stand at a spinetingling juncture. A quick way to gauge a squad’s poise is to see if they are playing to their strengths, or whether they are trying too hard to blunt the opponents’ advantages. In Lahore, Rahul Dravid exhibited his self-belief by choosing to bat first on a track that was bound to assist Pakistan’s pace attack. It did not quite work out in the end, but it smacked of confidence. It was a positive move.In Rawalpindi, India are seeking to refine their edge even further. They are believed to be in possession of the best middle order in cricket today. So they are going all out to leverage their main asset. They are dispensing with the opening pair altogether. It is heartbreaking for Aakash Chopra, India’s most technically adept opening batsman but at Pindi India will be making a bold statement. Barring a last minute case of nerves, India’s middle order will take first strike against Shoaib Akhtar & Co.Shredding conventional wisdom is fraught with risk — go wrong and you have no cover. Yet, it speaks of a new maturity when a team finally says, this is our strength, and we shall maximise it, never mind what the manual says, never mind that in the process we are ceding claim to standard excuses.Yet, it not just a question of comparative advantage, of potential. India must win a Test series abroad if they are to be counted among the most potent teams in world cricket. At Port of Spain, Headingley, Adelaide they have amply demonstrated that they have what it takes to succeed overseas. On each occasion, however, they have squandered the advantage, casting grave doubts on their staying power. That staying power, that resolve, is what will be tested at Pindi.
