Season146;s greetings from Pak

Uncertainty over Sehwag, Gambhir as Delhi start their campaign with Mohammad Nissar Trophy.

The gleam in their eyes outshone the glaze on the brand new SG Test balls. And understandably so, as it was for the first time the bowlers from the visiting Pakistani team, the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, were using the SG Test balls meant exclusively for Indian cricket.

8220;I bowled with it for the first time. It loses shine a bit quickly but achha reverse hoga isse,8221; says medium pacer Adil Raza. 8220;I am excited and hopefully I can use it to my benefit,8221; says left-arm spinner Imran Khalid.

Pakistan vice-captain and senior member of this team, Misbah-ul Haq, who has successfully dealt with the ball in the past, says: 8220;The Grains ball that we earlier used in our domestic cricket is somewhat similar to this. But we now use the Kookaburra at all levels. The SG balls will definitely provide a different charm to the game,8221; he adds.

No doubt they will be an important aspect in this Mohammad Nissar Trophy match, but the Qaid-e-Azam champions will have another problem to counter 8212; the Ferozeshah Kotla wicket.

It has been laid out specially to benefit the stroke-makers in the Delhi team. The binding on the wicket means spinners will have little role to play and the onus will be on the fast bowlers to make use of the 9.30 am start to swing the ball and reverse swing it in the last session.

Both sides are expected to go in with three specialist pacers with Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra and Pradeep Sangwan looking more compact and well equipped than their little-known counterparts from Pakistan.

The hosts look overwhelming favourites with the star power in their ranks but the picture could become hazy on Monday morning as skipper Virender Sehwag is still recovering from a swollen left ankle. He is most likely to sit out and joining him on the sidelines with a minor thigh niggle could be deputy Gautam Gambhir.

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Though Sehwag batted for 20 minutes at the nets, he looked uncomfortable and reserved the final call on his availability till the morning of the match. If he walks out to the middle for the toss, it will be a surprise considering the high stakes in a hectic season ahead.

Delhi8217;s batting will revolve around Aakash Chopra, Virat Kohli, Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia while Pakistan will rely on Misbah, Mohammad Hafeez and the Akmal brothers 8212; Adnan and Umar.

Teams

Delhi: Virender Sehwag capt, Gautam Gambhir, Aakash Chopra, Mayank Tehlan, Mithun Manhas, Virat Kohli, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht wk, Ishant Sharma, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra, Chetanya Nanda, Amit Bhandari, Narender Singh, Gaurav Chhabra. Reserve player: Rahul Diwan

Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited: Mohammad Hafeez capt, Adil Raza, Adnan Akmal, Asad Ali, Azhar Shafiq, Imran Ali, Imran Khalid, Khurram Shehzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Saleem Mughal, Samiullah Khan, Tauqeer Hussain, Umar Akmal and Yasir Arafat. Umpires: UL Dubey and Sudhir Asnani. Match referee: Arun Sharma.