A Prelude to the Final Test.

The cricket caravan for the India Pakistan series has reached Bangalore, the “Beer Capital of India” and the Garden City for the third and final test beginning tomorrow. It is very difficult to give a verdict as both the teams are very unpredictable and can raise their level of performance quite dramatically on a given day. However, looking at the past series of events especially the drawn test at Kolkata, the injuries to Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Sachin Tendulkar and M.S.Dhoni, and Shoaib Akhtar coming back to full fitness, the scales are tilted towards Pakistan who would be playing this match on one of their favorite hunting grounds. Moreover, India have a very dismal record at Bangalore in test matches where they have lost four of the last five tests played here.

In spite of all these factors it would be utter foolishness to write India off as two of the best players of the world, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid would be playing on their home turf. Moreover, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Jaffer and Laxman are in fine nick. The bowling department is definitely the weak link of India in this match with a completely new pace attack comprising Irfan Pathan who would be staging a comeback and probably Ishant Sharma who has played just one test match before this one. All said and done, if four of the top six batsmen fire and at least two of the four bowlers click, then India should be able to pull this match off. As regards the bowlers, I would like one of the spinners making it big in each of the innings along with one fast bowler. The rest can provide support from the other end by keeping things relatively tight if not taking wickets.

As far as Pakistan is concerned the dark clouds seem to have given way to rays of hope and glory. Both the “Ys” that indisputably form the back bone of their batting line up, are back in form and also the revelation of Misbah Ul Haq as a solid batsman has given a real shot in the arm to the lower middle order. The opening however looks to be the only chink in the armour as far as batting is concerned. The bowling again looks to be the weak link as barring Shoaib Akhtar and Danish Kaneria to some extent, the rest of the bowlers on display hasn’t looked penetrative at all. I believe, Mohammed Sami is going to give way to Rao Ifthikar as he looked a much better bowler during the one-dayers. The bottom line is, the setting seems to be perfect for the final match of the tour and promises to be an absolute cracker.

Let the better team win!!!