The Indo-Pak Test series did prove to be a gruelling one, as expected. Both the teams had their shares of highs and lows, though the Pakistan team, previously dubbed as 'the weakest ever Pakistan squad to tour India' certainly stole the show by levelling the series at one-all. Particularly noteworthy was the determination showed by unsung heroes, Asim Kamal and Kamran Akmal. Even vice-captain Younis Khan put his new-found consistency to good effect by slamming a ton in the Kolkata Test, followed by an aggregate of more than three hundred runs in the final Bangalore Test. Inzamam-ul-Haq's near-double hundred on the opening day of the final Test meant that the Indians were never in contention to win the match. Though Shahid Afridi consistently blasted his way past fifty, the other openers in the forms of Salman Butt and Taufiq Umar struggled to get going. Bowlingwise, Danish Kaneria was the star performer, with the others coming good in unison on the last day of the series.
For India, Virender Sehwag was in his usual menacing mood with the willow with Laxmipathy Balaji returning to international cricket with a bang. Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble were also at their usual consistent best, except at Bangalore, where while the former continued his dismal run, the latter looked unusually out of sorts with the ball. Dinesh Kaarthick finally managed to do justice to his batting potential by a well-made 93 in the Kolkata Test. Irfan Pathan looked unusually out of sorts with the ball as V.V.S. Laxman did with the bat. The less said the better about Sourav Ganguly's batting.
Pakistan is definitely on a high - more so with the inclusion of the swashbuckling Shoaib Malik. India needs to pull up its socks to win the ODIs.
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