The Pakistan players were slapping each other on the knees. “C’mon move your feet to save yourself,” shouted the team trainer. It’s a new warm-up exercise, wherein the players pair up, hit each other on the knee and try to escape the blow by moving away quickly — unless of course Shoaib Akhtar bends the rules and lands a soft punch on his partner Mohammad Yusuf’s chest to reverse the role.One can’t question the utility of the training regime; in Guwahati, Pakistan were found to be weak on their knees and their inability to use their feet against the Indian spinners has already left them with a one-game deficit, before the second match at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. They wouldn’t have to worry too much about Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik here though. This pitch, unlike the one in Guwahati, has a reputation of carrying some pace and bounce.The pitch on offer for the day-nighter tomorrow will have plenty of both, but will miss the green effect that had been customary here for a while. It will be up to every seamer to utilise whatever little swing the slight nip in the air might garner during the 6.45 to 7.45 pm slot, on what looks a good 260 plus wicket. And again, it will have to be Akhtar to bring Pakistan back to level.For India, Rohit Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Sreesanth came in early along with bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh to get a fair batting practice ahead of the first XI players. While India have a problem of plenty in batting as well as bowling, with Virender Sehwag again expected to join the trio on the sidelines for the match, Pakistan have plenty of problems on their hand. And most of it has been due to lack of choices available to them and the lack of flexibility.The fragile balance of the team hasn’t given Shoaib Malik a chance to include the dangerous Imran Nazir at the top, and will have to go in with the same opening combination of Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt with Shahid Afridi expected to float in the middle-order.While India have plenty of guys putting their hands up, the skipper would not want to fiddle with the winning combination, Pakistan are finding it a bit hard to make changes they need for a reversal of fortunes. The only change in the team is likely to be inclusion of Sohail Tanveer in place of Abdur Rehman for a four-man pace attack to counter the rampaging Indian batting. Though Team India are denying it, the distraction caused by the expectation of a new Test skipper to be selected, is evident. Added to that are other external factors — the dew that is expected to play a major role despite the ball change rules and use of super soppers. India conceded 74 runs in the last 10 overs, 102 runs from the 35th over onwards, and while it’s been a marginal improvement from the number of runs conceded compared to the Australia series, the area still needs attention.Batting wise, there’s little concern with Gautam Gambhir at No. 3 becoming an ideal foil to the Sourav Ganguly-Sachin Tendulkar opening combine, and an array of attacking batsmen in MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa .Pakistan, on the other hand, do have batsmen of repute who can score runs, but the likes of Mohammad Yusuf, Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik cannot tamper with the bowling as much as their Indian counterparts — something that only Shahid Afridi seems to be capable of and his unpredictability puts them under greater stress.It’s the same pitch where Pakistan winded up for a meagre 89 against South Africa the last time they played here during the Champions Trophy. It has been one year since. But drastic collapse of batting line-up has dogged the Pakistanis often.
