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JAIPUR, India, Tuesday - Pakistan with their strong bowling attack will have the edge when they take on arch rivals India in the third match of the Pepsi Tri Nation Series tournament at Jaipur, in the North West Indian State of Rajasthan on Wednesday.

Pakistan have already beaten Sri Lanka in the tournament and will be hoping to register their second straight win which would almost confirm their place in the final. The two key players in the Pakistan line up will be skipper Wasim Akram and his new ball partner Shoaib Akhtar.

Both bowlers have been quite impressive and are certain to cause some problems to the Indians who will be without their star batsman Sachin Tendulkar. In fact Tendulkar is expected to return to the Indian side for the second round matches of the tournament according to coach Anshuman Gaekward.

But the Indians would be pleased with the performance of opener Saurav Ganguly who won the man of the match award by scoring an unbeaten century in their previous game against Sri Lanka. The Indians will need to put up a good total and the pressure will be on skipper Mohamed Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Rahul Dravid and Vinod Kambli.

Pakistan will be minus their main spinner Saqlain Mushtaq who was slapped with a one match suspension by Match Referee Cammie Smith of West Indies for showing dissent during their opening match against Sri Lanka when skipper Wasim Akram was ruled run out.

The Pakistan team arrived in Jaipur four days before the game while the Indian team arrived here on Tuesday. A large crowd is expected for this game and already over 60,000 tickets have been sold.

The teams:

India: Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Ajay Jadeja, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Vinod Kambli, Nayan Mongia, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Nikhil Chopra, Ajith Agarkar, Laxmi Ratan Shukla.

Pakistan: Wasim Akram (captain), Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Ijaz Ahamed, Inzaman ul Haq, Yosuf Youhanna, Moin Khan, Azhar Mehmood, Arshad Khan, Shohaib Akhtar, Sahid Nazir.