GWALIOR, JAN 22: The Pakistan cricket team will step into the Roop Singh Stadium here for their only warm-up match before the Test series without even a look at the ground the day before. It is either a statement of supreme confidence or an indication of the price they have to pay for agreeing to this tour. Anyway, they did make it for a press conference late in the evening today, with captain Wasim Akram asserting they are ``quite serious'' about this three-day affair against India A. There was also a trace of that confidence as he remarked, ``I am not worried about the form of my players. They are working hard.'' Admitting that a good start here was more essential to him as captain, he said, ``But I enjoy working under pressure.''
Watching him squirm under the glare were Harbhajan Singh, who has seen it all before and Madhya Pradesh left-hander Amay Khurasia, who is surely praying for his turn to come. There are others in the queue too like Karnataka medium pacer Dodda Ganesh, Bengal bat Debang Gandhiand Madhya Pradesh all-rounder J.P Yadav. Delhi all-rounder, Virender Sehwag, however, is not expected to make the final line-up and Rahul Sanghvi may have to make way for Saurashtra's achiever of this season Sitanshu Kotak. But team line-ups are known to change overnight and with four National selectors here, anything is possible.
Forget the politics, cut out the security hype, remove the Pakistan angle and you find that this match is, perhaps, the best opening for India's new cricketing order to stage a grand entry.
Twelve of the 14 here are in the country's World Cup probables list of 30 and the fight here will be for that extra effort which might just squeeze them into the final 15. Remember, they have only one more chance left -- the Board President's XI vs Pakistan tie at Kochi -- to prove themselves before a pruned list is submitted to the organisers in England.
Pakistan will not help in any way, least of all here, as they seem determined to give their main XI some practice before the biggertests down the road.
TEAMS
INDIA A: VVS Laxman (capt), S.Ramesh, Debang Gandhi, Saba Karim (wk), Amay Khurasia, Jacob Martin, Virender Sehwag, Mohammed Kaif, J.P Yadav, L.R Shukla, Sitanshu Kotak, Dodda Ganesh, Rahul Sanghvi and Harbhajan Singh.
PAKISTAN: Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Ijaz Ahmed, Salim Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Moin Khan, Waqar Younis, Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar, Yousaf Youhana, Mohammed Naved, Nadeem Khan and Wajahatullah Wasti.
Umpires: K.S Giridharan and Dr. Mahal.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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