The Gautam-Wasim toss-up

Gambhir lowdownDebut and act: Gautam Gambhir made his first class debut three years after Wasim Jaffer. Has four centuries and 22 fifties le...

Gambhir lowdown
Debut and act: Gautam Gambhir made his first class debut three years after Wasim Jaffer. Has four centuries and 22 fifties less than his Mumbai teammate. Gambhir made his Test debut four years after Jaffer did.

The current competition
In Pakistan Gambhir and Jaffer are at it to seal that berth. For a moment, the Pakistani media watching the two bat on Day III of the warm-up mistook them to be the selected opening pair.
NB: Virender Sehwag, take note.

Their worth in Lahore so far
Gambhir scored 28, Jaffer 35. extra info is that the Delhiite hit five shots to the fence, the Mumbai player six. What caught attention was the elegance with which both the batsmen timed their shots, much to the delight of Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid.

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• 2005: Gambhir has had a poor 2005 as far as Test matches are concerned. Jaffer has been in fine form this season at home. In eight Tests last year, but Gambhir scored 377 runs with no successful effort to reach the triple-figures.

Specifics

Yet, the specifics have yet to be worked out.

• Coach quote: ‘‘You tell me.’’

• Players’ refrain: ‘‘(My) job is to score runs.’’

The warm-up

The three-day match finished in a draw but the visitors managed to accomplish what they had in mind. Going by the recent past, though, Gambhir will definitely be the one with more worries on hand.

—KSR

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