Pakistan
would carry out their first training session at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in
Bangalore on Sunday (today) barely 12 hours after reaching the south Indian
city for their limited-overs series opener against arch-rivals India.
Captained by Mohammad
Hafeez, Pakistan’s Twenty20 squad left Lahore for Bangalore via New Delhi
Saturday afternoon to play a five-match series that includes two Twenty20 games
and three One-day Internationals.
The tourists had a
stop-over in the Indian capital before a chartered flight took them to
Bangalore which would host the first Twenty20 International at the Chinnaswamy
Stadium on Christmas Day.
The players selected only
for the three ODIs — Misbah-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Haris Sohail, Wahab
Riaz, Imran Farhat and Anwar Ali — will leave for India on December 26. The ODI
series begins in Chennai from December 30.
The Pakistani cricketers
would be greeted with a heavy security blanket anywhere they go during the
brief tour of India.
According to media
reports, the Chinnaswamy Stadium has been completely barricaded and armed
policemen are posted at all four corners of the main square at the stadium.
Though the series opening
game is still two days away, the stadium looked like a fortress on Saturday.
But undeterred by the
security cover, Pakistan are exuding confidence ahead of what is their first
bilateral series against the Indians in five years.
“We are ready and
prepared for the India challenge,” Hafeez told reporters at the conclusion of a
training camp in Lahore last week. “We have trained so hard to get ready for
the India series. India might be low at the moment [after losing to England in
the Test series] but it’s a new format and they have a very balanced T20 team.
“Nobody can deny the fact
that a Pakistan-India series carries intense pressure. The contest is always
full of pressure and full of expectations of people of both countries. We will
try to express ourselves without any pressure,” he stressed.
While Pakistan announced
their team several days before the series, India would only name their squad on
Sunday (today).
According to reports,
Indian selectors will gather on Sunday to pick the squad for the series against
Pakistan amid speculation that struggling senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar has
made himself available for ODI selection.
The Indian squad is
unlikely to see many changes from the one that featured against England in a
T20 rubber played on Saturday night.
It is the ODI squad that
would draw more attention as there are unconfirmed reports that Tendulkar has
made himself available for the three-match rubber starting in Chennai.
The star cricketer had
been part of the last ODI squad during the failed campaign in Bangladesh in the
Asia Cup where he completed his unprecedented feat of 100 international
hundreds.
Tendulkar, whose
retirement has been speculated endlessly in the media and by former cricketers,
has been in and out of ODIs in the last few years by choice, but with his form
dipping in Tests, the 39-year-old could be eager to rediscover his successful
run through the 50-over game for the upcoming four-match
Test rubber at home
against Australia.
The second one-day game
against Pakistan is to be held in Kolkata on January 3 followed by the last
match on January 6 in Delhi.
The other focus in the
selection meeting would be captaincy and as per current indications, MS Dhoni
is expected to keep his job though his success record in the ODI format too,
like the one in Tests, has taken a steep dip after he piloted the country to
the World Cup title last year.
Zaheer Khan is another
senior cricketer who is battling fitness concerns and dipping form in
international cricket.
The other point of
interest in the selection would be Virender Sehwag who opted out of the
Twenty20 series against England. It is not known whether he has declared
himself available to play in the T20 format against Pakistan. —With inputs from
agencies
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