Sachin’s knee puts him on doubtful list

As Irfan Pathan walked back to the field after collecting his spikes from the dressing room post warm-up, a loud collective...

As Irfan Pathan walked back to the field after collecting his spikes from the dressing room post warm-up, a loud collective ‘Oops’ escaped from those watching him. The man, who was drafted in as the new pace spearhead after the injury epidemic hit the fast bowling department, had slipped on the concrete. In this season of niggles, strains, sprains and the resultant ‘Ouchs’ and ‘Aahs’, even an ‘Oops’ on the eve of India’s crucial final Test against Pakistan sounded calamitous.

Though Pathan’s swift parking of hands on the floor arrested the fall and averted any serious injury, but it was quite close to adding one more question mark in the mind of Indian captain Anil Kumble. From the eleven that played in Kolkata, two — Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel — have already been ruled out by injury. And three more three aren’t exactly in pink of health.

It isn’t just the recently-surfaced problem areas of Sachin Tendulkar’s suspect knee, MS Dhoni’s dodgy ankle and Sourav Ganguly’s body temperature that made Kumble non-committal about the playing eleven, but there were several other fuzzy factors connected to the final Test of the series that put an aura of uncertainty over a gloomy, cloudy and rainy Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Like Pakistan captain Younis Khan, Kumble said the cover on the pitch meant he could not talk about the behaviour of the track. The unpredictable weather conditions complicate the matter further. While on the batting front, Tendulkar and Dhoni are expected to be rested, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir are expected in the XI.

That will also mean that Dinesh Kaarthick keeps wickets and also makes way for Gambhir at the top. A big test for the two, keeping in mind the Australia series.

This will be a well-deserved opportunity for Yuvraj, who can finally prove himself as a Test player. He played his last Test 18 months ago. But there was a word of advice from cricket manager Lalchand Rajput to the middle-order batsman. “Be focused on the job at hand and never let negative thoughts come into the mind,” he said. But he did understand Yuvraj’s plight. “In earlier days, we used to think that we will get one chance and we have to make the most of it. If he gets a big hundred, you never know,” Rajput said.

Another tempting option for Kumble today was to include two more spinners in the team besides himself. When asked if left-arm spinner Murali Kartik will play, Kumble said, “We’ll take a call on that tomorrow morning. It depends on the weather and the all-important look of the pitch in the morning.”

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The relative inexperience of pacers VRV Singh and Ishant Sharma, and the history of the ground, were factors that favoured the three-spinner theory. The last Test India won in Bangalore was 12 years ago, and the bowling line-up had names like Kumble, Venkatpathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan.

But despite such temptations, Kumble would stick to two spinners – two pacer attack. The big decision the team management had to make was: Do they go ahead with their best four bowlers in the squad—Kumble, Harbhajan, Kartik and Pathan—or do they get swayed by conditions? It is learnt that the decision was influenced by the condition.

The logic was simple. In case they had gone with three spinners, Kumble would have been forced to bank on Ganguly, who has just recovered after a bout of viral fever, to bowl a longish spell. With the team leaving for Australia within days of the completion of the Test series, Team India wouldn’t want to suffer any more ‘aahs’ and ‘ouchs’. Or, for that matter, even an ‘Oops’.