Indians hope to get on song with a flat pitch

‘‘Batting wins one-day games so we are confident about our chances,’’ he said. Even questions about the bowling weaknesses were dismissed with contempt, the theme being tomorrow will be different.

‘‘We have had a chat with the bowlers and they have been told where they have been going wrong,’’ Ganguly informed.

His opposite number Inzamam Ul Haq too seemed to agree with him when he tried to play down India’s performance in the warm-up game. ‘‘We don’t want to read too much into the warm-up match’’, Inzamam said. ‘‘But we’ve taken some tips from our juniors and the policy will be to attack.’’

The Indian batting has just come off a great series in Australia and will be aware of the need to ‘‘protect’’ the bowlers, as it were. The team will miss Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar and in their absence there is a chance for pace bowlers Lakshmipathy Balaji, Irfan Pathan and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik. Though officially the team will be announced only on Saturday morning, the younger lot will get yet another chance with the Indian team management hinting that team for the warm-up match will be retained.

This would be a huge vote of confidence for Kartik, especially after his poor show in Australia. Kartik will have a tough time bowling in the middle overs against a strong Pakistan line-up including Inzamam and Yousuf Youhana who have, in the past, dented the confidence of even Anil Kumble.

The biggest concern, though, is the match fitness of spearhead Zaheer Khan, who had a poor showing at Lahore. Ganguly, for what it’s worth, declared Zaheer’s fitness.

On the batting front, too, the contest may have been built as Sachin v Shoaib but Inzamam said his team had done a lot of homework on the Indian line-up and was well prepared for the challenge ahead. “Sachin is their prime player. We’ve studied all his innings over the last six months and our bowlers know where to bowl to him,” he said.

Inzamam is hoping to get the maximum out of his trump card Shoaib Akhtar. “Shoaib is our strike bowler. He’s in good form and we have high hopes from him for this series.” The biggest advantage for the Pakistan team is the presence of plethora of all-rounders like Moin Khan Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi and Rana Naveed Ul Hasan.

Razzaq, Malik and Moin form a dangerous combination for the slog overs especially and this is likely to provide the hosts the edge over the Indians.