Pakistan v India, 2nd Test, Faisalabad

'The simple plan is to stop him from scoring' - Inzamam

Osman Samiuddin in Faisalabad

January 20, 2006

Inzamam ponders over how to control Virender Sehwag © Getty Images

For a man who wasn't even there, Virender Sehwag was surprisingly ubiquitous at Inzamam-ul-Haq's pre-match press conference. Having added 254 mostly audacious runs to his tally of 982 against them before the Lahore Test, it wasn't a surprise.

Sehwag's comments after the first Test, about loving Pakistan's bowling and their defensiveness in preparing such a flat pitch, added a pinch of masala when it was most needed. If it was meant to stir, then it probably has; Inzamam touched upon it in his column yesterday and some within the team suggested, wryly, if he is dismissed early at any point, celebrations might be exaggerated.

Sehwag's bluster has clearly registered for there was a firm, testy rebuttal from Inzamam of his charge that Pakistan had been defensive in Lahore. "I don't understand why Pakistan would play defensively. After putting so many runs on the board in Lahore why would we be defensive? I think many people realised soon after the weather changed in Lahore that the match was heading for a draw. We knew after that it would be difficult to get a wicket on this pitch."

But as ever, Inzamam's recipe to stop Sehwag was plain. "The simple plan is to stop him from scoring. We just want bowlers to bowl in those areas where we feel, according to our strategy and planning, he can be stopped." Those areas are likely to be short and into his body, cramping his style and curbing his runs.

The Sachin clone tag may have been shed but increasingly Sehwag is attracting a similarly obsessive and skewed following. Someone piped in, prematurely, that the series involved Pakistan and Sehwag, rather than India. Inzamam dead-batted, late as ever, "He is a very good player and he is in form. India also has other good players in the team. In every series there is one batsman who gets into a good run of form. His team depends on him for runs and the opposition looks to get him out early."

Sehwag apart, there has also been much pondering about the weather and the scheduling of this series. The Pakistan board's revelation that Karachi had been penciled in for the first Test, only to have the request turned down by the BCCI, has elicited from India a denial. In which case, nobody is quite sure why the first two Tests are being played in Punjab at the peak of winter, including Inzamam. "It would have been better if the series had started in Karachi because the weather in Punjab is not conducive for play during the early winter."

Bright sunshine, blue skies and brisk temperatures have greeted Faisalabadis two days in a row and the earlier gloom of forecasts has been steadily replaced by a clearer outlook. Predictions, including Inzamam's own, that the series may be decided by one session in Karachi have quietly been withdrawn. "I said that after the weather in Lahore and the fact that the weather in Faisalabad which is not too far away was expected to be similar. The forecast was similar here so in that sense I said the series could be decided in one session. I wouldn't want a series to be decided in one session."

Medically, news of Inzamam's troublesome back and Shoaib Akhtar's left ankle - the former an ongoing reality and the latter a recurring whisper since England - flitted through Faisalabad in the build-up although they too, like the threat of poor conditions, have since receded. Inzamam and Bob Woolmer were both oblivious to the reports and the former insisted at the press conference that, "everyone is fit." Nevertheless, changes are expected in the team: "There will be one or two changes in the team but we haven't decided yet what they will be. It will be in the bowling department as the batsmen didn't do much wrong in getting nearly 700 runs."

Indeed they didn't do much wrong. The problem of course is stopping the man who got over 250 and doesn't ever seem to do any wrong against them.

Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of Cricinfo.

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