Haroon said the top five batsmen have gained confidence and were mentally strong to rid the team of batting problems. InAamir Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamamul Haq, Wasim Akram and Moin Khan, Pakistan has a solid batting line-up. ``Plus the recent all-round performances by Azhar Mahmood are in good stead.''

The coach said top class players only require one or two innings to storm back into contention. ``Look at Mark Waugh, he needed just one or two innings to shed his bad patch.'' Haroon agreed that captaincy was a tough task and Saeed Anwar personal performance was effected by it. ``Because as a captain, the burden of whole team falls upon your shoulders, but then again Saeed was brought in when Wasim was injured and Wasim has shown that he can captain ably and it does not effect his performance.''

Haroon had some reservations about playing four seamers and not fully utilising the youngsters. ``Arshad Khan could only bowl 10 overs, which does not justify his talent, it failed to expose his real skills, therefore I think playing youngsters and not giving them full chance and time to excel is more harmful to their career.'' However, Haroon said everything would depend on what type of wicket the team gets at the end. ``I went to the field today, there is grass on top of the strip and it also appears firm.''

SQUADS ARRIVE: The touring West Indies and Pakistan squad arrived here Wednesday evening.

The West Indians flew in from Karachi where they were involved in the controversy after refusing to stay at the Civil Aviation Rest House at Hyderabad because of its poor accommodation. As a result, they did not play the four-day against Habib Bank.

``Nothing makes up for the competition we were suppose to get during the four-day game but we are going to put everything behind and play like a professional team. Such things happen on tours, so its all right,'' Clive Lloyd said when asked if the long net session at the National Stadium did them any good.

The two teams will hold practice session at separate timings on Thursday. However, the question of holding nets was doubtfulfollowing overnight heavy showers that came after midnight. The outfield was soggy although, sun shone throughout today. The final cutting of grass was also delayed till Thursday. When covers were removed the wicket still had a fine layer of grass on top.

It has been learnt that covers are inadequate to completely blanket the 110 ft square. The organising committee like in the past they have covered the square with tarpaulin if it rains, will not be able to keep the square dry. The drying facilities werealso inadequate, but the organisers were hoping theclouds would go away. However, the weather forecast predicts cloudy weather with chances of more rain.