Kumble holds the key to Kotla win

Yet his half-jest underlined the fact that, for all the batting collapses and the wicket being three days old, it still retains its batting-friendly tag. As Muttiah Murlitharan; the man who returned first-innings figures of 38.4-8-100-7 finished the third day with an atypical 25-3-86-0.

So on the highly unpredictable Kotla track you can expect a turnaround but not necessarily turn.

If Kumble’s wish, no doubt shared by his fellow bowlers, is to become a reality, much will depend on the performance of two men who will be fighting their own battles. As Sourav Ganguly (22) and Yuvraj Singh (28) walked back to the pavilion this evening they were probably wondering which of them would make it to the playing XI in the final Test at Ahmedabad.

Virender Sehwag is fit to play and the reshuffle his return necessitates simply increases the pressure on the two men unbeaten overnight. In some sense the pressure was visible in their batting today. After his 40 in the first innings Ganguly seemed more confident while Yuvraj looked like the duck was still on his mind. A few confident lbw shouts and a couple of edgy shots today means Yuvraj needs to take a fresh guard tomorrow.

Maybe both will get to play the next Test because, even as Irfan Pathan was offering one opening solution, Gautam Gambhir presented another problem. His third successive failure leaves him with scores of 0, 2, 2 in this series — out to Vaas everytime — and his record is likely to be scrutinised by the selectors.

With the first innings heroes Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman taking minimum interest the second time around it’s up to the others to chip in. Rahul Dravid looked comfortable coming down the order during his innings of 53, till he ran himself out. The stage is set for Ganguly, Yuvraj and Dhoni to put some quick runs on the board.

That should make Messrs Kumble & Co happy. India awaits.