Restless minds under security blanket

But the skipper was bullish on the team’s prospects. ‘‘Pakistan definitely played well at Jamshedpur but don’t forget we have beaten them in a similar fashion at Kochi’’, he said today. Indian not only hammered Pakistan in the first one-dayer and went on to win at Visakhapatnam. But it was Pakistan — known for striking back strongly when the chips are down — who opened their account at Jamshedpur to infuse life into the one-day series.

India has won five of the eight one-dayers played at this venue and are in no mood to press the panic button yet, despite some of their frontline batsmen not amongst the runs.

Some strategic changes might be on the cards — including going with one right-arm fast bowler — but the skipper confirmed that there would be no drastic measures. ‘‘We want to see Balaji at the nets today, how well he comes through, only then will we decide’’, said Ganguly. ‘‘If he is fit, he will certainly play because he is one of our main strike bowlers.’’

Talking about his own loss of form with the bat, Ganguly said, ‘‘Criticism will be there. When you are not scoring runs people are bound to get upset and criticise but then I have also received a lot of praise when I have done well.’’

He ruled out the possibility promoting himself up the order, as has been suggested by various former cricketers. ‘‘We will stick to the same combination of Sachin and Sehwag. I am not opening — at least not in this match.’’

Another aspect that might haunt Ganguly ahead of tomorrow’s encounter is how to manage the slow over rate for which he was fined 70 per cent of his match fee after the Jamshedpur one-dayer. ‘‘That is something the whole team has to look into. We have to hurry and the whole team has to push themselves through.’’

Playing their first one-day match in the city, the entire Pakistan team looked at ease despite all the hype surrounding the tie. Skipper Inzamam-Ul Haq is too focused on the match on the morrow and appears undeterred by what is happening around. Though last-minute details have not been drafted yet, Inzamam said that they might go with an extra spinner as the pitch looked to be a spinning track.

Which leaves two factors: the heat and the toss.

‘‘If we have to win the series we will also have to beat the heat’’, said Ganguly pithily.

The Pak skipper however agreed that the team fielding first is bound to be exhausted while coming out to bat again. ‘‘But that’s part and parcel of the game and we have to know how to tackle it’’, said Inzamam.