Indians field a full strength Test side
Ashish Shukla
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
field a full strength Test eleven 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 Sourav Ganguly today took the unusual step
of announcing the final eleven 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 Sunder Das, Sadgopan Ramesh,
V V S 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 eleven.
Taibu is a wicket-keeper who toured England recently with
a Zimbabwe A side recently 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 strangly 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.
Mail Cricket Editor
