Pakistan prepare for warm-up on bald pitch

Pakistan begin their tour game on a `ganja' wicket. That's how their coach Bob Woolmer described the pitch at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association ground in Dharamsala, where the tourists play a three-day game with the Indian Board President's XI being led by Mohammad Kaif. Kaif went straight to the point, without saying much about the pitch: "There can't be a result in a game of this sort." "It's completely bald" was Woolmer's assessment.

Both men were right with their assessments. However, if nature had behaved true to form, their opinions might have been different. In the ongoing domestic season, the ground had hosted six first-class games - four Ranji Trophy and two Duleep Trophy - and all the six produced results.

The chief reason behind the results was the grassy pitch. "The speciality of this wicket was the abundant grass cover," says Himachal Pradesh Ranji Trophy coach, Rajdeep Kalsi, who acted as the curator for the ground under the guidance of the BCCI grounds committee member Daljit Singh. However, in the last one month, inclement weather and drizzle has denuded the pitch of its lush green tinge.

The altitude and the heavy air will assist the fast bowlers who rely on movement, but the ball will not zip off the pitch as it had during the domestic games. As for the bounce, that will be normal. That should be good news for the Pakistan pace brigade of Naved-ul-Hasan Rana, Mohammad Sami and Abdur Razzaq. Mohammad Khalil, the left-armer, is still recovering from the injury he suffered during the Australia series and didn't bowl in the nets.

Kalsi felt that the wicket could take turn as the match wore on. "There are good chances of the wicket breaking midway into the third day," he said. That might happen if the frequent clouds that keep appearing take a break.

Both teams were quiet on the team-composition front, but it should be quite a tussle. Kaif said that his team would make sure that they don't allow Pakistan to gain any momentum before the main event starts in Mohali in six days' time. Hopefully, the weather Gods will relent long enough for both teams to make an impression.

Board President's XI (from): Satyajit Parab, Dheeraj Jadhav, Shikhir Dhawan, Venugopala Rao, Mohammad Kaif (capt), Suresh Raina, Neeraj Patel, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ramesh Powar, Shib Shankar Paul, Rudra Pratap Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Ranadeb Bose, Ram Kumar.

Pakistan (from): Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Khalil, Asim Kamal, Taufeeq Umar, Shahid Afridi, Arshad Khan.