Poor stopping, cause for worry

The 55,000-capacity stadium here has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Indians as far as Test series go. They scored a thrilling 2-1 victory in the inaugural series in 1978. The following two matches in 1981 and 1986 ended in draws.

Indian coach V Baskaran sounded optimistic about his team8217;s chances. 8220;There has been a lot of improvement in the team8217;s performance. The youngsters are slowly settling down, and even the seniors have performed creditably. Though we should have easily won at Rawalpindi, we are determined to make up in the coming matches,8221; hesaid.

With Brojen Singh still not fully fit, the Indians may decide to leave him out of the starting 16, and play Altaf-ur-Rehman. However, the coach said that the team doctor Dr Cruz will give his verdict tomorrow morning. The abject failure to convert penalty corners has left the coach worried. Twenty penalty corners earned in three matches have been wasted half of them due to poor stopping.

India8217;s poor performance inside the circle has mostly stemmed from the sterling show by Pakistan goalkeeper Ahmed Alam. It was Alam, who kept the Indians at bay, when the Pakistanis had lost the initiative in the midfield in Pindi.

Even the Pakistanis have injury problems with right full back Naveed Alam yet to recover fully from a knee injury he suffered in the clash with Brojen. However, they have a creditable replacement in Ali Raza. Naveed has played a major role in keeping India8217;s sharp shooter Pillay in check.The Pakistan captain Tahir Zaman also sounded worried about his team8217;s midfield play. 8220;ImranYousuf, our centre half is still very raw. He8217;ll take some time to mature. This has helped the Indians to control the midfield more,8221; Tahir pointed out.

Added to that is the home team8217;s heavy reliance on Shahbaz Khan. Shahbaz flowered in Peshawar when he was given free space, but failed to do much in the second Test, with Thirumal Valavan and Tirkey keeping a close watch on him.

Tahir said that there was a possibility that he could himself shift from inside right to the centre half position, to kept the attacks going. 8220;So far Shahbaz has been playing withdrawn to lead support to Yousuf. Now I can take his place. And even if Shahbaz is marginalised, our other forwards are capable enough of troubling the young India defenders,8221; the captain said. The Pakistanis are also contemplating over giving Irfan Mehmood a chance in place of Imran.

Tahir admitted that the Pakistanis had been outplayed in Pindi and 8220;we were lucky to win.8221;

The Pakistan captain also pointed out that even as the two teams were inthe building-up process, the quality of the matches has been good. 8220;The Indian leg will witness some exciting encounters,8221; Tahir added.

ANNUAL SERIES PROPOSED

The president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation PHF Akhtar Rasool said here yesterday that the PHF was planning to make the Indo-Pak series an annual feature. He said that teams at three age-groups should play each other continuously to bring back Asian hockey into limelight.