The Countdown Begins

With the Asian Test Championship now out of the way, the sub-continental teams can get down to the real task at hand for this year. The World Cup.
Normally, any one-day tournament that features both India and Pakistan holds special significance especially if it is being played on the home soil of one
of the two countries. But the One-Day triangular starting on Friday in India, holds even more importance because of the looming World Cup. This
tournament and the one that follows in Sharjah will be the last chance for the teams to prepare for England. In this respect, the Indian tournament will be
critical since the first few games will be played prior to the final team selection for the world cup. Now clearly the playing conditions in India or Sharjah in
April will be totally different from the ones in England in May, but this affords the opportunity for the teams to finalize strategy, and to get other technicals
like fielding and running between wickets right. Teams should figure out whether they feel more comfortable setting a target or chasing one, they also
need to find out what the right opening bowling and batting combination is, (i.e. is it the right strategy to blast away from both ends or does it make more
sense to attack from one end and keep the other end tight). I think in this respect it may make more sense to experiment keeping in mind the playing
conditions one will encounter in England and not the conditions that the games will be played under in India or Sharjah. For example for Pakistan it may
make better sense to stick with the opening combination of Wasti and Anwar instead of bringing in Afridi, since Afridi is less likely to be successful in
opening in the swinging and seaming conditions of the early English summer.

In my opinion India has the least experimenting to do. Their combination appears pretty well set. Ramesh definitely needs to be continued with as the
opener and I feel he should open with Tendulkar, Dravid, Azhar, Ganguly, Jadeja, Agarkar, Mongia, Kumble, Srinath and Prasad to follow. I think this
would be core team with others brought in should injuries or playing conditions require. For Sri Lanka the task is a little more difficult, they tend to rely
more on the blast with the bat and contain with the ball strategy. In this respect the many utility spinners that they have in their armory have suited them
well on the slow turning sub-continental wickets, but the very same bowlers may make easy pickings in England. Obviously the Lankans need
Jayasuriya and Muralidharan back, the new ball partnership of Vaas and Wickramasinghe should also be continued with. It is the supporting cast that is
a problem, Ruchera Parera has some pace but can be expensive, Sanjeewa DeSilva did not look very impressive in the ATC, Hathurasinghe maybe
someone who will find the English conditions to his liking and he can also bat a bit. I think the Sri Lankans should continue with an opening combination
of Jayasuriya and Attapatu, with Jayawardane, Desilva, Ranatunga, Tillekaratne, Kaluwitharna, Hathurasinge, Vaas, Wickramasinghe, and Murali making
up the rest.

The Pakistanis I think will also have a hard time finding the right combination. I hope logic prevails and Waqar is taken to England, (if the selectors are
planning to take him they should play him in Sharjah for sure). He has too much experience and I think if used properly can make a big difference. If you
have a four man pace attack with Azhar, Akram Waqar and Akhtar, than you can afford to use Waqar after the 15 overs and give him some more
protection, especially on the straighter boundaries, in case his yorker goes wrong. Even if he is not in the playing XI, I think that he should definitely be
in the touring party on account of his experience of English conditions. In India and Sharjah the Pakistanis should experiment with various combinations
which would include opening with Wasti instead of Afridi, using Razzak instead of Azhar as the pace bowling all rounder and possibly even opening with
someone like Ijaz to give some stability at the top. My core playing XI would be Anwar, Afridi, Ijaz, Inzi, Youhana, Azhar, Moin, Akram, Saqlain, Younis
and Akhtar. But as I mentioned I would use players like Wasti and Razzak when the conditions warranted. To complete the 15 squad I would add in Imran
Nazir and Arshad Khan as cover for Saqlain.

It is rather surprising that the Indian tournament organizers have limited the squad size to 14 when the Sharjah and WC squads can be 15. I hope better
sense prevails and they increase the squad by one more. Like I mentioned, the Indian tournament will be interesting, because each team will have atleast
3 matches before March 30th (the deadline for naming the final WC squad). In such a situation it would make sense to experiment with some of the
"fringe" players to see if they have what it takes. For example in Pakistan?s case, players like Imran Nazir, Wasti (if he is taken to India), Razzak and
Arshad Khan should all be given a chance prior to March 30th.

Well, the countdown has really begun. For us highly emotional cricket lovers, the next 3 months are bound to be filled with the most euphoric highs and
the most abysmal lows. Lets hope the former outweigh the latter.