Pakistan on the rise

Five months ago, India would have gone into a game against Pakistan fully expecting to pull off a win. However, much has happened since the Indians whipped Pakistan in the Tests and the one-dayers earlier this year, and, going on current form, Inzamam-ul-Haq and his men will be the favourites to put it across India at Edgbaston and make it to the semi-finals.

Since Bob Woolmer took over as coach, Pakistan's fortunes have taken an upswing so steep that some of the credit must go to him. A team which used to be ragged and disorganised in the field has suddenly turned into a much more disciplined unit, and even looked like beating Australia in the final of the tri-nation tournament in Amsterdam before some old problems resurfaced.

However, most inspiring would be the results in their last two matches against the Indians - once, in the Asia Cup, they thrashed them with plenty to spare, and then pulled off another comfortable win in Holland. It's true that only form on the day matters in the shorter version of the game, but going into this match, there is no doubt who holds the whip.

India, though, do have a habit of reversing poor form rather unexpectedly - a tendency most recently exhibited in the 2003 World Cup. After a thrashing at the hands of Australia, and an unconvincing win against Holland, they suddenly pulled it together through the rest of the tournament (till, of course, that drubbing in the final).

The players who starred in India's golden run in the last couple of seasons are part of the squad here (apart from one Sachin Tendulkar), and there's no reason why they can't start a revival here. The problem for the Indians has been the lack of runs on the board. The top six, who were all in irrepressible form last season, have suddenly been floundering, and the bowling just hasn't been good enough to cover those blemishes.

India's poor early-season form was brushed aside by many critics - the team was rusty after a long layoff and would peak in time for the bigger games, they reckoned. Well, the early-season skirmishes are over, and the big games are here. Both teams know what is at stake, and, you can be sure, will be all keyed up for what is a virtual quarter-final. If the weather holds, we could be in for a cracker.

India (probable): 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, 4 Mohammad Kaif, 5 Rahul Dravid (wk), 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Rohan Gavaskar, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Ajit Agarkar, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Ashish Nehra.

Pakistan (probable): 1 Imran Farhat, 2 Yasir Hameed, 3 Shoaib Malik, 4 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Yousuf Youhana, 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Moin Khan (wk), 9 Naved-ul-Hasan, 10 Mohammad Sami, 11 Shoaib Akhtar.