Fever strikes Indian camp in Bristol

BRISTOL: Compared to dank and cold London, Bristol has been bathed in warm sunshine, but the gloom around the Indian team persists. Five of the regulars — Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Ajit Agarkar — complained of aches, niggles and flu, sending skipper Rahul Dravid’s brow into angles and arcs that suggested worry.

India are one match down in the series, remember, and another defeat here could be a fell blow. Suddenly, the side which had won the Test series with so much to spare now seems to be running out of gas.

The captain could be excused for looking hapless. Indeed, in hindsight, his concerns during the last Test about the fitness of his colleagues may not have been entirely unfounded.

Tendulkar did not emerge for net practice at all, which could mean either that his flu-symptoms are serious; or that they are minor, demanding only the immediacy of rest. Dravid will hope it is the latter, for the maestro from Mumbai remains the lynchpin of the Indian batting in this series.

This has been a happy hunting ground too for Tendulkar, so he would be keen to play. He has two hundreds to his credit here — against Sri Lanka in the 2002 NatWest Tophy, and three years earlier, a whopping 140 off only 101 balls against Kenya in the World Cup.

Now, Kenya are not exactly Australia, but this hundred had come only a couple of days after he had returned from his father’s funeral, and was under great emotional strain.

The pressure on him now will be to provide a good, preferably match-winning start to the innings in the company of Sourav Ganguly.

Individually and as a pair, these two have been among the outstanding one-day cricketers of the modern era, and India will be hoping that they can turn on the magic in this crucial match.

Sevil Road is a smallish ground and with the pitch baking under the glorious sun, a high scoring match is expected. Pundits forecast a plethora of fours and sixes, but it is a moot point whether more of these come from the men in blue, or those who wear a lion on their crest.

England’s early batsmen walloped the Indian bowlers in the first match, so much so that the big hitters Kevin Pietersen got only little time in the middle and Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff none at all.

It would be some inspiration to Dravid and his team that India is credited with both scores in excess of 300 made on this ground. That kind of score seems par for the course here, which means that the much-vaunted batting will have to play to potential if the team is to win.

Even so, one reckons that Dravid will be more concerned about the bowling, especially if the three pacers, Zaheer, RP Singh and Agarkar are still under the weather on the morrow.

The Indian captain would have liked to play five bowlers and keep Gautam Gambir out. That would give the team better balance right because with Dhoni, Agarkar and Powar/Chawla, the lower order appears strong.

In the circumstances, though, Dravid might plump for the more conventional, if slightly defensive approach. Two spinners would be a luxury and his spare seamers are plain rookies. Already a match down, he would like to minimise the risk and believe that if he has enough runs on the board, even his beleaguered bowling attack might be able to defend the total.

Not the best frame of mind to enter an international match, but India need to desperately win here to keep the series alive. And who knows, a victory would blow away the flu from the Indian dressing room, bring back the spring in the steps of the players for the remaining two weeks. Quite simply, there is no better antidote to any ailment than winning.