Pathan in as India look to go 2-0 up

The only good news, though, has been the probability of VVS Laxman making it to the playing XI with his strained knee finally showing signs of having healed. However, his inclusion — at, possibly, Hemang Badani’s expense — will be known only on Tuesday morning.

There are strong indications that Mumbai all-rounder Ramesh Powar will make the final XI. The stocky off-spinner, who had an extended session on Sunday with coach John Wright, is an unknown quantity to the Pakistanis (and, indeed, to several teammates), which could work to his advantage.

His flat and tight off-spin may come in handy for the Indians in the middle overs, where left-arm spinner Murali Kartik found it difficult against the Pakistan middle-order. Powar is also a useful bat, and beef up India’s own lower-middle order.

However, Dravid had words of praise for Kartik. ‘‘Murali is a good bowler. He will be the first to tell you that he did not bowl well at Karachi. But in that game everyone made merry, so it would not be proper to blame the bowlers.’’

With a young attack on a small ground like this, the Indian team will have its hands full trying to contain the Pakistan batting — and will be aware that even 350 was almost not enough two days ago. This puts additional pressure on the batting at all times, but Dravid did not seem to agree with this theory. ‘‘We know 350 cannot be scored everyday, and hope our bowlers can do the job even if have something lesser. But no there is no pressure on us batsmen, we have all done well over the last couple of months.’’

When the Indians finally took to the practice field, escorted to the ground by the Pakistan Rangers through emptied streets, it appeared that all was normal — despite trading in their favoured volleyball for a game of rugby. Ganguly joined them after a while, visibly unwell but appearing in good spirits. His presence seemed to lift the team and certainly eased the load on John Wright, who spent a long time looking at the track. What he read possibly was that there are more runs on those 22 yards and that Pakistan has won 10 of its 13 matches here.

No wonder the Pakistan team’s morning nets was far more relaxed. Coach Javed Miandad tried to be realistic and kept repeating the fact that his team was down 0-1. ‘‘It was very frustrating, we played well, batted well, but still lost. Its gone and done with, we need to be much better.’’

Miandad was also concerned about the extras conceded and observed that first fifteen overs in the Indian innings was almost equal to 20. But just like the Indians the Pakistan team is not revealing its cards just yet, but it could just be that they play a sixth bowling-allrounder like Shahid Afridi to beef up the bowling.