Tails wagging the dog? Ask the Indians how…

How? Basically by making Kamal look like Viv Richards and giving the inexperienced batsman singles at will to try and attack the tailenders. If any one thing hurt the Indians most, it was the two partnerships Kamal was allowed to forge with Shoaib and Umar Gul, which granted them an additional 100 runs. The field was spread and on the slow and dead-looking pitch, Kamal had a ball.

So much so that Kamal could say at the end of the third day’s play that ‘‘there was nothing in the Indian attack to trouble me. Irfan was the best of the lot, but I was always confident of making the runs with the tail’’.

Dravid made a serious of blunders on Wednesday. He did not make the right bowling changes and when the time was opportune to give Irfan and Balaji extended spells, Dravid brought in a clearly unfit Agarkar and an under-par Kumble.

As Kumble fired away relentlessly but without any purchase, Dravid looked totally lost with his hands on his hips (and the sight-screen blow-up of Ganguly staring down at him) and a nonplussed expression on his face. In the end, therefore, it was a case of missed opportunities and a successful attempt at making not-so-capable tailenders look better batsmen than they are.

But this is hardly the first time the Indians have come unstuck when confronted by a stubborn tail. The Indian counter, however, is always the same, and that has to be the problem. India always chooses the option of giving easy singles to the established batsman and attacking the tailenders.

But seeing that it’s never worked, maybe it’s time to change the tactic. If they have managed to reach the tail, surely they have the ability to remove the last remaining top order batsman!

It’s all a bit late in the day, because the Lahore Test seems lost. But the lesson can be learnt and used the next time India reaches a similar situation.