It is a make-or-break Test for Pakistan in Lahore. They would like to maximise the potential of their pace battery, which is the engine that drives them on a cricket field. But I am not sure if Shoaib Akhtar is up to the task. He does not seem to be the same bowler who used to run through the batting line-ups of New Zealand or Australia in a matter of a few deliveries. He looks mentally very tired and does not seem to back himself enough against this Indian line-up. He throws up his hands so often while bowling that it betrays a tormented soul.
In retrospect, I feel the toll of the one-day series has been immense on the Pakistani bowlers. The Indians were regularly picking up 300 plus totals and Shoaib had more no-balls, wides and runs than wickets to show in his bowling column. We clearly have not seen the best of Shoaib in this series.
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With bowlers conceding nearly 700 runs, it is always a tough task for batsmen even against Bangladesh, leave along a strong unit like India. As a bowler, you feel liberated with such a bank of runs. You experiment, you attack, and in most cases get the help from facing batsmen also who cannot help but be cautious.
The Indians consistently made early inroads in both Pakistani innings in Multan and Irfan Pathan, who looks a match-winner, was the reason for it.
If you ask me, Virender Sehwag is the main difference in the team of today from the ones we had in the past. He goes ballistic from the word go and helps immensely in rattling the bowlers. Bowlers can get him out, but cannot keep him quiet. His attack of Saqlain Mushtaq on the first and second day was a piece of tactical brilliance.
Saqlain has been a force against India in the past and might have been purposely held back in the ODIs to be let loose on the Indians in the Tests. But Viru played him brilliantly, smashing him around the park and throwing the Saqlain factor out of the window -- possibly for the rest of the series. He has ensured that the Pakistani attack can at best be one-dimensional. I cannot see them trusting a spinner with their attack for the rest of the series.
Viru's triple hundred is the stuff of legends and it was always on the cards after he finished the first day on 228 not out. One believes such a score has not been seen from any Test batsman on a single day in the last 54 years. He has said he never felt the Pakistanis could get him out. Even we the viewers never felt the Pakistani bowlers stood any chance against him.
Viru's triple century is surely going to motivate the rest of the Indian batsmen further. Such feats tend to motivate the whole team. It is not a competition but just a healthy spirit to match your fellow professionals. If a bowler takes five wickets, the one at the other end tries to emulate him. It would be the same with the rest of the Indian batsmen.
Along with Viru, you cannot ignore Anil Kumble. He has been a bowler I have admired for long, one who has been a great help from the other end. It is difficult to count how many matches he has won for India.
When I started, Kumble appeared to be a bowler who would put 12 balls at one spot all the time. Now he has developed a googly. This new armoury automatically slows up his deliveries and injects doubt in the mind of a batsman.
I have always been very happy bowling alongside him, for he dries up the runs from one end and allows me to attack the batsmen from the other. He has now bowled another perfect delivery -- in the form of a son. Congratulations to a fellow spinner and an inspiration whose form in the last few matches has been nothing less than sensational.
Finally, it seems that Pakistan will be expecting more than 200 per cent from their captain Inzamam-ul-Haq -- the only batsman who potentially has the talent to be a thorn in India's flesh. But if he keeps running between the wickets like he did in Multan -- holding the bat in the wrong hand, which stopped him from stretching -- he would cause his own team's destruction.
