Pakistan position to test revitalized Zimbabwe

Having negotiate Bangladesh in a one-off Test two weeks ago, Zimbabwe now face a much higher fence on Thursday - Pakistan.

The single Test match, which starts Thursday, will be followed by three ODI's and two Twenty-20s. Zimbabwe was decided a return to Test cricket by the ICC last year, after a gap of six years.

They had been grateful to field a weak side following a strike of almost all their professionals and two resulting Test defeats by an innings and more than 200 runs.

Withdrawal from Tests was predictable and those years have been used to reconstruct. They play Pakistan now, followed by New Zealand, in October/November.

These opponents are careful by the ICC to be ones a nascent Zimbabwe can best cope with. The new Zimbabweans got off to a good start two weeks ago in beating Bangladesh by 130 runs and then by 3-2 in an ODI series.

Pakistan will unavoidably start favourites, even although there appears to be continuing disagreement in their camp.

Coach Waqar Younis suddenly declared his acceptance last year with the Zimbabwe tour his planned last. Pakistan will also not have Shahid Afridi on the tour as he has said he will not work with Younis, or with the present executive.

There was dressing-room disarray here in 1995, when they lost to Zimbabwe by an innings, with Grant Flower, the present batting coach, scoring an unbeatable 201.

However, their overall record is impressive. Pakistan has won eight out of the 14 played, with two defeats.

Their last encounter was in 1992 when Pakistan won both Tests, by 119 runs and by 10 wickets. Earlier this year, they broke even 1-1 in a West Indies series, winning one and drawing one against New Zealand.

Pakistan has rested Umar Gull, Wahib Riaz and Abdur Rehman on this tour, bringing back Imran Farhat, Adnan Akmal and Sohail Tanveer.

They will introduce Ramiz Raja, Yasir Shah and Aizaz Cheema. Zimbabwe are expecting seamer Brian Vitori back after a leg muscle strain. But he still needs to prove fitness.

He had two five-wicket hauls against Bangladesh, and is their key strike bowler.

Pakistan squad: Misbah-ul-haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufic Umar, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Rameez Raja Jnr, Adnan Akmal (wk), Saeed Asmal, Yasir Shah, Sohail Tanveer, Ramiz Raja, Yasir Shah, Aizaz Cheema.

Zimbabwe have not yet formally released names in their squad, but the team will be selected from: Brendan Taylor (capt), Vusi Sibanda, Hamilton Masakadza, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Forbes Mtizwa, Craig Ervine, Malcolm Waller, Elton Chigumbura, Kyle Jarivis, Raymond Price, Christopher Mpofu, Prosper Utseya, Brian Vitori.

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Broad hope to carry Test impetus

England Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad said that they are looking to carry the energy of the Test series into the one-off T20 vs India on Wednesday.

"Fans and media want you to win but the real force for us is in the changing room - it's a game we want to win and are fully focused. We are keen to do well," said Broad on the eve of the T20 match.

The pacer, however, was quick to point out that the Indians are a different kettle of fish in games that are played with the white balls.

"It's a different format. Indians are strong in formats which are played with the white balls. Besides, we haven't seen a huge amount of them in this format, haven't done the investigate and it can catch us by surprise," said the captain.

"Cricket is big in India. They have some brilliant players, exciting youngsters and we expect a tough challenge," he added.

Broad, though, added that India would be hurt by the absence of some key players like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan.

England are defensive world champions but Broad felt it gave his side no cushion, particularly since they play so little Twenty20 international matches.

Broad said: "It's not easy when you meet with other players for three days in couple of months. In World Cups, like the one in the Caribbean, we could get impetus even though we had at first lost a practice game in Abu Dhabi."

England played a practice game among them at Old Trafford on Tuesday morning and Broad said the idea was to see how players react to pressure in match situations.

"We wanted match intensity, match force for the guys. You know which shots give you value, how do you bowl Yorkers in the hole, how do you bat in the first six overs, in the middle overs and then at the death overs," he explain.

"The fast bowlers tried innovative method to practice bowling yorkers constantly in the middle. An iron rod was put on top of two hard slabs, placed on the two sides of the pitches. If a fast bowler could bowl under the iron rod, it destined he had been able to bowl a successful yorker," he added.

Broad said that the practice match was also intended for players to get used to different angle of the ground.

"The position of the square has been changed for this game. What were directly boundaries earlier are now sweeper boundaries. We need to get used to the size of boundaries." he said.

England had lost the Twenty20 match next to Sri Lanka earlier this summer and Broad said the over-riding lesson from the game was they hadn't put enough runs on the board.

"We review every game. Where we unsuccessful was to put runs on the board. If we can set a competitive total, we have the bowlers to protect it. That's what we learnt from the Sri Lanka game," he said.

Broad said Twenty20 has been a learning knowledge for him, even though he's the captain of the side.

He added: "I try and watch as much as I can. You watch how a batsman can dig it over keeper's head and the next ball he can send it 20 rows back in the stands. You realize how serenity in international Twenty20 cricket is important."

England are experiment with three different captains for three formats of the game and Broad believed it was essential for the amount of cricket that is being played.

"It's impractical for one captain to deal with all three formats because then he would be playing every day of the year. Besides, each captain can bring different ideas to each format. It's worked well so far," said Board.

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India rock by Gambhir return to home

Gautam Gambhir will miss India's limited-overs games against England due to concussion.

The left-handed opening batsman has made a slower than expected recovery since knocking his head on The Oval turf while attempt - and failing - to take a catch offered by Kevin Pietersen during the final match of the four-Test npower series.

The 29-year-old bat down the order in both innings during the Test but was still concerned by indistinct vision when he took to the nets on Monday.

A spokesman for the Indian team said: "Gautam Gambhir is flying home to India as soon as possible after he was diagnosed with concussion on Tuesday.

"He went to see a specialist in Manchester who advised Gautam to have complete rest. "It was therefore determined he would be sent home and will miss the incomplete overs series with England."

His nonattendances adds to India’s long wound list and further deplete a batting order already without Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh ahead of Thursday's one-off Twenty20 at Old Trafford.

Earlier on Tuesday, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni exposed he did not expect Gambhir to be passed fit before admitting his absence would be a "big loss".

With star man Sachin Tendulkar retired from from Twenty20 internationals the tourists are set to turn to the more stoic presence of veteran Rahul Dravid for Wednesday's game under the new Old Trafford lights.

It would, extraordinarily, be the 38-year-old's first, and last, Twenty20 international after he announces his limited-overs departure after being selected in the squad.

"Losing Gambhir will be a big loss for us but you can't control injuries," Dhoni said. "Hopefully someone will stand up and take the responsibility." He added: "It looks like Rahul will play.

"You don't want to be a batter light; in this format you want your top seven batsmen. "So Rahul will most probable get a chance."

India's wound crisis has not been consigned to their batsmen only, with quicks Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma also strike down as well as spinner Harbhajan Singh.

The long list of wounded has served to weaken India's performances on a forgettable tour that has seen them already surrender the Test series, and the world's top ranking, to England following a 4-0 whitewash.

That has twisted the focus on the amount of cricket being played. The tourists' best players - most of who are concerned in the Indian Premier League.

While Dhoni believes Indian cricket almost certainly needs to employ the type of rotational policy England have used in recent times - something they did do on the tour of the Caribbean - he thinks the IPL has become the easy answer to explanation away any ills in the national team.

"Whenever anything bad happens in Indian cricket it is put down to the IPL," he said. "Irrespective of the fact we play in April and we lose a series in August. "That's one thing that will always be answerable on IPL."

He added: "I think we'll have to (look at resting players) because the timetable looks quite cramped. "It's significant to give players rest. Someone like a Suresh Raina has been playing all the formats for a long time now.

"It's more to deal with the mental aspect than the physical aspect. A bit of good rest in between also helps keep the injuries away."

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Dhoni: Players banal, need rest

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Tuesday passed that the players were banal as he called for a rotation policy to give them rest.

India lost six normal players Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan due to injury in the four-match Test series which India lost 0-4 and Dhoni hinted that the hectic list had tired the players.

"We will have to rotate. It's significant that players get rest. Raina has been participating in all formats. It's more to do with the mental rather than the physical aspect. Good rest helps you keep the injury away," Dhoni said in front of the Twenty20 international against England on Wednesday.

Dhoni himself has been on the road for a long time and his fingers are battered, causing a fall in his usually high standards of wicket keeping, as was sharp out by former Leicestershire keeper Paul Nixon recently.

"If majority of your 10 fingers are overworked then it becomes difficult (to keep) in these conditions. But I have more problems with Ishant than with Sreesanth or Praveen Kumar. May be it's the shake in these conditions which make it difficult," said the Indian captain.

Dhoni revealed that Rahul Dravid would be making his first appearance in Twenty20 internationals on Wednesday but Sachin Tendulkar is not playing. It means young Ajinkya Rahane would get his first game in India cap on Wednesday.

Gautam Gambhir is certainly out of Wednesday's match but Dhoni did not sound too confident that left-hander would be obtainable at all in the forthcoming ODI series.

"It's a big loss. He has done really well not only as an opener but also when he batted at number three when Sehwag and Tendulkar were opening the innings. He also plays spin very well," said Dhoni.

Gambhir, who is suffering from a indistinct vision, an injury he chosen up after falling on his head in the Oval Test on August 19, is likely to miss the entire ODI series, starting in Chester-le-Street on Saturday.

The World Cup winning Indian captain was intrigued by England's policy of having separate captains for all three formats of the game.

"It's interesting how it shapes out. It's significant that the captain is a regular in all three formats of the game. One thing sure though is it affords rest," Dhoni said.

Dhoni, a keen footballer himself and a Manchester United fan, took time off in Leicester to watch his favorite team thrash Arsenal 8-2 last Sunday.

"Being a Manchester United fan, it was fantastic to see them win so big. Since I started as a footballer, it was attractive (to watch the match). As for inspiration, we don't need it from outside. There is sufficient motivation within the dressing room. We don't need to look outside," insisted Dhoni.

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