Full-strength Pakistan likely for Indian tour opener

The three-day opener against India's second-string provides Wasim Akram's tourists their only chance to tune up for the first of two back-to-back Tests starting in Madras on January 28.

Coach Javed Miandad said on the team's arrival in New Delhi on Thursday he would field a virtual Test-strength side for the first match so the players could get used to Indian ``conditions, crowds and security.''

Miandad himself played three Test series in India in 1979, 1983 and 1987. But only Akram among the current team was part of Pakistan's last Test tour 12 year ago.

``Most of the others have played one-day cricket here, but a Test match atmosphere is very different, very tense,'' the coach said. ``They must get used to it fast.''

Tight security, including gun-toting commandos, awaits the Pakistanis when they arrive in this central Indian city late Friday despite firebrand Hindu leader Bal Thackeray's decision to call off violent protests against the tour.

``We have been told not to relax the security,'' match organiser Prashant Mehta said. ``There's no problem here, but we are not taking chances.''

The irrepressible Miandad, who created a stir two years ago by inviting Thackeray to Pakistan for the World Cup, had another dig at the Shiv Sena supremo.

``I hope Thackeray-sahib remembers that invitation,'' he said. ``He has not invited me this time but we are his guests and it is his duty to look after us.''

Miandad, one of Pakistan's finest batsmen, made light of a suggestion that India would prepare slow wickets to blunt his team's feared pace battery of Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar.

``Don't forget we also have some of the best spinners in Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed. We have the power to counter any wicket.''

On Saturday, Pakistan will have their first look at India's new opening pair of Venkat Laxman and left-hander Sadagopan Ramesh, who replaced the out-of-form veterans Navjot Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja for the first Test.

Laxman, the stylish middle-order batsman who went through the recent tour of New Zealand without playing a match, gets a chance to warm up for the series while leading the India A squad here.

Ramesh, who will make his Test debut on his home turf in Madras, forced his selection with a string of high scores in domestic cricket.

The India A team also includes Test off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, and an exciting 17-year-old allrounder, Laxmi Ratan Shukla from Bengal, who will join the Test reserves in Madras.

Pakistan (from): Wasim Akram (capt), Wajahatullah Wasti, Saeed Anwar, Mohammad Naveed, Ijaz Ahmed, Salim Malik, Inzamam-ul Haq, Yousuf Youhanna, Moin Khan, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Nadeem Khan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Azhar Mehmood, Shahid Afridi.

India A: Venkat Laxman (capt), Devang Gandhi, Sadagopan Ramesh, Jacob Martin, Mohammad Kaif, Amay Khurasia, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Dodda Ganesh, Rahul Sanghvi, Harbhajan Singh, Saba Karim, Sitangshu Kotak, Jyoti Prakash Yadav, Virender Sehwag.