As they sleep in their beds tonight, within the four rings of security, India’s cricketers will doubtless dream of the old thespian adage coming true: a bad dress rehearsal means a good performance. Going by that, India should play a cracker of a match on Saturday when this historic series gets underway in Karachi. Because today was, frankly, a disaster. It’s not the result alone — Pakistan ‘A’ beating a full-strength India with embarrassing ease, overhauling their 335 with six wickets and five overs to spare — but the sheer indiscipline and ineffectiveness of the bowling that has raised fears. Those fears, first voiced a long time ago, were given the official seal today when coach John Wright said, with typical understatement: ‘‘Our bowling is a concern.’’ ‘‘We have to have a Plan B’’, a clearly perturbed Wright said after the match. ‘‘This cannot continue any longer. We cannot afford to have bowlers going for 60 and 70 runs in their spells.’’ As is his wont, Wright offered a simple solution: ‘‘We have to have a better all-round performance. Tomorrow at practice we need to look how it happened, why it happened and what needs to be done to be better.’’ The flat Gaddafi Stadium has historically been a bowlers’ graveyard. But if Taufeeq Umar (104) and Imran Nazir (65) buried the Indian attack, the touring bowlers dug their own grave with a complete lack of discipline. The biggest disappointment was spearhead Zaheer Khan, who was hit with such ease by the second stringers that Saurav Ganguly spent much of the day metaphorically chewing his nails. Zaheer appears distinctly short of a gallop and it seems unwise to have brought him over without having been tested more thoroughly back home. Zaheer himself had told The Indian Express before the tour that he had been advised by pace guru Dennis Lillee not to travel if he was not bowling at full tilt. Sage advice that perhaps should have been heeded. Zaheer’s struggle to get his rhythm prompted visions of the World Cup final as he was hit for 17 runs in his first over by Imran Nazir. His first spell of 3-0-31-0 set the tone for the match, though Wright appealed for leniency from the media. ‘‘It’s his first match back after injury. Give him a chance.’’ Zaheer wasn’t alone in his profligacy. Already handicapped by the absence of Kumble, Harbhajan and Agarkar, Team India’s inexperienced bowling was as green as the jerseys they were bowling to. Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik pulled back things a bit but he still appears far from filling the role Kumble plays in case of a crisis, while Lakshimpathy Balaji (0/60 off 6) and Pathan (0/49 off 5) appear to have left their skills behind not in India but Down Under. If there was a silver lining in this terribly dark cloud, it was the quality of the batting, although against second-rate bowling. The best sight was Tendulkar (76) in full flow, though he took some time to shake off his stiffness. And Rahul Dravid (92) showed he’d lost none of his form from Australia, batting fluently and made most of the licence to kill in the slog overs. Given the chameleon-like natyure of this Indian team, it would be wise not to read too much into Thursday’s display. Ganguly and his men have a habit of raising their game when it matters and there will be enough occasion for that in the next six weeks. So Wright accentuated the positives, drawing parallels with last year’s World Cup. The team had reached the final yet, he pointed out, had begun the campaign losing to a Natal XI. Brief scores Indians 335/6 (Sehwag 75, Tendulkar 76, Dravid not out 92, Qaiser Abbas 2/56) vs Pak A: 336/4 (Imran Nazir 65, Taufiq Umer 104, F Iqbal not out 50, Sehwag 1/22, Tendulkar 1/31).
