As Irfan Pathan walked back to the field after collecting his spikes from the dressing room post warm-up, a loud collective ‘Oops’ escaped from those watching him. The man, who was drafted in as the new pace spearhead after the injury epidemic hit the fast bowling department, had slipped on the concrete. In this season of niggles, strains, sprains and the resultant ‘Ouchs’ and ‘Aahs’, even an ‘Oops’ on the eve of India’s crucial final Test against Pakistan sounded calamitous.

Though Pathan’s swift parking of hands on the floor arrested the fall and averted any serious injury, but it was quite close to adding one more question mark in the mind of Indian captain Anil Kumble. From the eleven that played in Kolkata, two — Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel — have already been ruled out by injury. And three more three aren’t exactly in pink of health.

It isn’t just the recently-surfaced problem areas of Sachin Tendulkar’s suspect knee, MS Dhoni’s dodgy ankle and Sourav Ganguly’s body temperature that made Kumble non-committal about the playing eleven, but there were several other fuzzy factors connected to the final Test of the series that put an aura of uncertainty over a gloomy, cloudy and rainy Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Like Pakistan captain Younis Khan, Kumble said the cover on the pitch meant he could not talk about the behaviour of the track. The unpredictable weather conditions complicate the matter further. While on the batting front, Tendulkar and Dhoni are expected to be rested, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir are expected in the XI.

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