‘Yuvraj may get the nod’ |
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Friday April 11, 01:06 AM
Kanpur, April 10: Anil Kumble knows how important this match is to him. Down 0-1 on one’s own turf doesn’t look good on any captain’s resume, more so one on someone who’s a stickler for good performance. Subsequently this time around, the India skipper is pulling out all stops, even to the extent of risking injury in his heavily strapped bowling arm.
Asked whether he would be available for the match starting on Friday, Kumble replied, "Not really. But I haven’t decided on anything yet and I’ll take a call first thing in the morning. A lot depends on how I feel tomorrow… I hope things will get better."
"If I can bowl, I will play," he added.
Even though Kumble did not reveal the playing XI, he did indicate that the flamboyant Yuvraj Singh could get a look in. "We’ll have a team meeting in the evening and then decide on the playing combination. Nothing is finalised yet. But at this point of time, Yuvraj is ahead of (Mohammed) Kaif.
Even as queries veered to the pitch playing an important part, Kumble was quick to dissuade such speculation. "A lot of talk is happening around the pitch these days," said the 37-year old leg spinner.
"I’ve said this before, that we’d like to take the pitch, weather and toss out of the equation, but it looks a fairly dry surface and it should assist (the spinners) as the game progress. Whatever the conditions we are confident of playing good cricket,"
The skipper felt that his side better more prepared to take on the South Africans this time around. "We have few of our plans to execute and we have prepared ourselves. I don’t know what Mickey Arthur (the Proteas’ coach) feels, but we’d like to believe that we have the bowlers who can take 20 wickets at this pitch and then put the runs on board."
Kumble said India reserved their best performances when they were pushed to the wall. "It’s not the first time that we have lost a Test match. It happened to us in Australia and even earlier. Whenever we are pushed to the wall, we perform exceptionally well."
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