Does Sourav Ganguly sleep these days? If he does, imagine the dreams he must be having. He shuts his eyes, and as he drifts into a state of REM, he finds himself at mid-off. Javagal Srinath runs in and bowls a string of short-pitched balls, and Gary Kirsten, looking four times larger in the dream than in real life, keeps thrashing him around.

Ganguly groans, turns uneasily, and suddenly he is at mid-on. Venkatesh Prasad is bowling gentle lollipops at Herschelle Gibbs who, like a mythical demon of yore, has ten heads. Gibbs breathes fire, the lollipop implodes, and Ganguly awakes. He wipes the sweat from his brow, curses this blasted load-shedding in Calcutta. Then he remembers where he is.

India go into the second one-day match against South Africa facing a conundrum. The South African pitches are ideal for pace bowling, and Ganguly's pace bowlers are the ones letting him down. One would imagine that Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra's injuries should not worry Ganguly; they are rookies, and he has the old war-horses, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad, to rely upon. Yet last Friday, these two men gave away 110 runs in 17.2 overs between them.

More than the figures, what was worrying was their rampant indiscipline. If Srinath's bowling could be personified, it would be a juvenile delinquent incapable of rational thought. If that sounds harsh, consider this: In his last 14 one-dayers, he has bowled 119.2 overs and given away 702 runs at 5.9 per over. In his last five matches against South Africa, he has conceded 278 runs in 39 overs at a rate of 7.1. When he should be bowling full, he keeps pitching it short. When the off-side field is packed, he sprays it down the leg. In any other team, except perhaps Bangladesh, he would have been dropped long ago. It's time to say goodbye to Javagal.

Ganguly's nightmare may have been alleviated a bit by the appearance of a turbaned warrior. Harbhajan Singh, since his comeback against the Australians earlier this year, has played 16 one-day matches and has picked up 17 wickets, with an economy rate of 3.97. In the triangular series in Sri Lanka, he played seven matches and took 11 wickets, and conceded only 3.4 runs per over.

Harbhajan has been the bulwark of India's bowling this year, and to drop him, as the team management did last Friday, against a team who are none too comfortable against quality spin bowling, was mystifying. India should play their best bowlers in every match, and have faith in them. Horses for courses is all well and good, but some horses, they just need to be put out to pasture.

The Indian think-tank finally seems to have woken up to this, and is planning to play Harbhajan in the second one-dayer. The big question here is whom will he replace. Anil Kumble is a class act, a player who learns from his mistakes. He will clearly play. So must Ajit Agarkar, who was the pick of the pacers. Prasad was awful on Friday, but is capable of producing variations in pace -- slow, slower, very slow -- and inspires more confidence bowling at the death than Srinath. That leaves only Srinath, whose talents with the drinks trolley need to be tested.

Centurion Park, where the match is being played, usually offers pace and bounce, and the Indians could be wary of going into the match with just two pace bowlers. They might decide to play five bowlers, keep Srinath in the team, and drop SS Das. That could boomerang on India, as Pollock and company would then need to take only a couple of early wickets to get into an inexperienced middle-order, and a lower order that would start at No. 6, with Ajit Agarkar. Bad dreams, anyone?

The average score at Centurion is 211. But the average score batting first, which the majority of teams winning the toss have opted to do, is 244. The last time a match was played here, South Africa made 324 batting first against New Zealand, and Nicky Boje, in the middle of an incredible run, made 129. Boje has just replaced Claude Henderson in the South African team, a move that strengthens their batting, and increases their options.

But as Ganguly writhes in his sleep, it's not South Africa he'll be thinking of. The real threat to India comes from within.

Amit Varma works for Wisden.com in India.

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