It’s February 14 and Irfan Pathan happily wishes everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. He blushes at the mention of being the most eligible bachelor in this Indian team. Shivangi has kept a low-profile, and has been silently watching Pathan make headlines on the tour for pure cricketing reasons. Pathan has been brilliant with the new ball, and has stuck to the task with the old one. He admits to be reminded about his good old days of 2003 tour when he watches Ishant Sharma firing from all cylinders and breaking through the international stage at 19. India have a long break before their next encounter on Sunday, and Pathan says that these little breaks in between helps him do strengthening and core exercises. He is feeling absolutely fresh with his body and is raring to go. But Ishant Sharma has had quite a good workload—he’s bowled 127 overs through the Test series and one-day matches, apart from those side games and net sessions. The Indian team is not utterly disappointed that they went down to Sri Lanka the other day in Canberrra, but are ruing the lost opportunity to give rest to Ishant and try out another bowler. Had India won their last match against Sri Lanka, sources say, the team management would have given a break to the 19-year-old bowler, but with India’s position in the series still precariously balanced, they have decided to postpone their plans. It means the Indian team is likely to be the same that played in the last two matches. One of the main ideas on this tour was to provide opportunities to every player on board. “I realised that everybody in this team will get their chances at some point of time,” Dhoni had said during India’s first game in Brisbane, and it was to be kicked off with Ishant. Meanwhile, Australia too are in a similar dilemma with Brett Lee. Skipper Ricky Ponting admitted that Lee has had quite a bit of workload this summer and they were thinking of resting him after the Melbourne game. But their defeat to India and with the next match at Perth, the plans had to be put off for a while. “Lee has bowled a lot, maybe, at some point of time during the series we have to do that, after this game here (defeat to india) we have to see how to go about it. The selectors will have a little bit of chat on that and maybe arrive at a decision later,” he said.Clearly the series is getting too close for comfort and has upset many a team plan. But with Ishant and Lee still in frame in the remaining games, nobody is complaining, except perhaps the two bowlers.
