The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : ‘It will be a tense series’

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Sunday, Nov 04, 2007
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‘It will be a tense series’

Principal Correspondent

KOLKATA: The Indian cricket team’s conditioning camp concluded on a high note here at the Eden Gardens with the promise of a “tense series” against Pakistan. With the weather holding up and a sunny morning greeting the home squad on Saturday, the Indians practised for almost two-and-a-half hours, going through the drills of batting, bowling and fielding.

Manager Lalchand Rajput summed up the two-day practice session as satisfactory and thanked the groundsmen for the facility provided despite several rain interruptions. “We had nets yesterday (on Friday) and today we could do fielding as well,” he said after the practice session. The camp was held full strength with the overnight absentees — Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh joining the practice session.

Positives

Rajput hoped that India’s confident showing in the latter stages of the series against Australia would help it begin on a positive note. “There were lots of positives in the last series, especially the last two games in Mumbai,” he said.

“The way the team fought back from behind, it boosted the team morale and we hope to take it ahead in the upcoming series (against Pakistan),” he added.

The manager said that the frequency of the India-Pakistan series could not diminish the intensity of the rivalry between the two sides.

“It will be a tense series. India-Pakistan matches are always crunch games and it gets the best of both sides. The team which handles the pressure better will win,” he said.

The Indian manager did not give any clue about the possible batting line-up saying, “we have not thought over it. It was just a training camp and we will discuss it at Guwahati during the team meeting.”

Thin line

Rajput reiterated the stand on sobriety and favoured a balanced approach as the desired stance from the team members. “There’s a thin line between aggression and over-aggression and definitely we have to keep the balance,” he said.

In an effort to douse the pre-occupation of the media on the absence of Pakistan speedster Mohammad Asif, Raput said: “They (Pakistan) still have very good players. There are no minuses and pluses in cricket. If they are without Asif, they have Shoaib Akhtar.”

Strong side

India’s emerging pace spearhead R.P. Singh, who accompanied the manager in the post-practice briefing said, “in the last four months we have played a lot of good cricket. We are focussing on our strong points.”

When asked how he wishes to go about against the visitor especially after it had praised him recently, the left-arm seamer said, “Pakistan is a very strong side and it depends on how well they are playing on a particular day.”

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