India will be up against not only a more determined home side but alsoa miserable record at the ground when they go into the second Testagainst Zimbabwe starting in Harare on Friday, chasing a rare serieswin on foreign soil
14-Jun-2001India will be up against not only a more determined home side but alsoa miserable record at the ground when they go into the second Testagainst Zimbabwe starting in Harare on Friday, chasing a rare serieswin on foreign soil.India have bitter memories of this ground having lost the one-off Testin 1998. Even in Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test in 1992, they had tostruggle to earn a draw. On the other hand, three of the five Testwins for the hosts have come on this ground.But to say that the Indians are on a high after their comprehensiveeight-wicket win in the first Test in Bulawayo would be to state theobvious. The visitors have one of the most balanced sides in years andalmost all of them are in top form.The first win outside the sub-continent in 15 years has done wondersfor their confidence and, as some of the players said after the win inBulawayo, they would go all out for a 2-0 series win.Having said that, the hosts too have prepared well for this Test withcaptain Heath Streak and coach Carl Rackemann saying they haveidentified their mistakes in the first Test and have modified theirstrategy. Zimbabwe was very capable of surprising the Indians, both ofthem stressed.The Indians are most likely to include Hemang Badani as an opener ashis statemate Sadagoppan Ramesh has not yet recovered from a backinjury. Badani, who will make his debut if included, has never openedan innings in his first class career but has impressed with his soundtechnique.The left hander made full use of the opportunity given to him in thetour match against CFX Academy when he scored 35 attractive runs as anopener before retiring. On the other hand, Ramesh has struggled onthis tour with scores of just 2 and 17 in the Bulawayo Test.Another Indian who needs to come good with the bat is skipper SouravGanguly. After a nightmarish series against Australia back home,Ganguly has so far failed to click on this tour also. Though he hassucceeded as a captain, Ganguly knows he needs to get the runs on theboard to silence his critics.With conditions once again favourable to fast bowling, the trio ofJavagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra would be expected tocome up with a performance similar to that in the first Test.Ganguly yesterday cleared all doubts regarding Nehra’s participationin the match saying the left-arm medium pacer from Delhi willdefinitely play. Nehra had put in an impressive performance in thefirst Test claiming five wickets including that of Andy Flower in boththe innings. But he was stopped from bowling for the rest of theinnings for damaging the pitch in his follow-through.Zimbabwe, who were handicapped by the absence of Streak and HenryOlonga in the Indian second innings at Bulawayo, would be bolstered bythe presence of fast bowler Travis Friend, who missed the first Testdue to injury and is all set to make his debut here.”Friend is fully fit for the game. He looked good in the nets todayand is bowling with great pace. He would make it this time," Streaksaid.Streak himself is raring to go though he is still to be declared fullyfit but Olonga will miss the Test. Streak said his team had carefullystudied the mistakes in the first Test and was working hard to rectifythem.”We have realised where we had our downfall and hopefully we will getthings right in the Test,” he said. “We let Harbhajan Singh get awaywith a bit more than he should have. Now with a better balanced side,without any injuries, hopefully we won’t let that happen again. Welacked patience while batting in our first innings and the guysmistimed their shots. We have to address that in this Test,” Streaksaid.Both teams expressed satisfaction with the pitch which seems a littlemore spinner-friendly than the one at Bulawayo though the fast bowlerswill continue to enjoy an advantage.The teams:India (from): Sourav Ganguly (captain), Shiv Sunder Das, SadagoppanRamesh, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Hemang Badani,Samir Dighe, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, DebashishMohanty, Ashish Nehra, Sairaj Bahutule and Ajit Agarkar.Zimbabwe: Heath Streak (captain), Dion Ebrahim, Guy Whittall, StuartCarlisle, Alistair Campbell, Andy Flower, Grant Flower, BrightonWatambwa, Andy Blignaut, Travis Friend, Brian Murphy, Gavin Rennie(12th man).Umpires: Ashoka de Silva (Sri Lanka) and Ian Robinson (Zimbabwe).Match referee: Denis Lindsay (South Africa).