Indians field Test XI in ‘testing’ tie

Mutare (Zimbabwe), May 27: Indian preparations for their first series victory on foreign soil in 15 years will be put to test when they take on Zimbabwe A in their tour opening three-day match here tomorrow.

This being the only match before the first Test starting in Bulawayo on June 7, the Indians left nothing to chance and fielded a full strength Test XI against an equally strong Zimbabwean side which boasts of nine past and present Test players.

A measure of their seriousness was evident in the way the Indians took to practice within hours of arriving in Harare on Friday and captain Saurav Ganguly today took the unusual step of announcing the final XI a day in advance. The team included three medium pacers to exploit the windy and bouncy conditions prevailing here.

“These pitches suit the seamers. So we will go in with three fast bowlers,” he said. Harbhajan Singh is the only spinner included in the team to bowl alongside Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar. There was no experimentation in the batting order with the normal Test line of Shiv Sundar Das, Sadgopan Ramesh, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and Samir Dighe being fielded.

On the other hand, the Zimbabweans baffled the Indians by including two schoolboys — Tetindu Taibu and H Masakadza — in their final XI.

Taibu is a wicket-keeper who toured England recently with a Zimbabwe A side and is widely tipped to take over from Andy Flower once the former captain retires.

Masakadza is an opener who caught the eye of the selectors by becoming the youngest centurion in the domestic national competition.

Led by Gavin Rennie, the side includes the likes of Craig Wishart, Craig Evans, Dirk Viljoen, Travis Friend, Bryan Strang, Brian Murphy, D Mutendera and Dion Ebrahim, all of whom have represented Zimbabwe one time or the other. However, only Rennie and Strang stand some chance of making it to the Test side in this series. Rennie, who was in the team that toured India last year, scored 93 and 37 against New Zealand earlier this year but was strangely not selected to play in the home series against Bangladesh.

Strang, who too was not considered against the Bangladeshis, looks set to return to the national side as his fellow pacemen were found wanting in bowling within the stumps. Strang has the knack to make the batsmen play all the time and will be closely watched by the selectors. Friend missed the series against Bangladesh due to an injury sustained on the tour to Australia and if he performs well and is fully fit, he too can be picked up for the Test.

The venue, surrounded by hills and overhead trees, has a lovely setting but the pitch is flat and should help the batsmen, according to Kish Gokal, manager of the home side.