Thursday, January 24, 2002 Sourav Ganguly will be looking forward keenly to the third one-day international in a bid to salvage his career. If there is one pitch in India which should suit him it's the one at the Chidambaram Stadium, which has got the right kind of pace and bounce for his comfort and which has historically not afforded much lateral movement to the bowlers.

The conditions in Chennai are ideal, but Ganguly's track record here is not: 33 in his only one-day appearance and an average of 23.00 from three Tests. And with Sachin Tendulkar also having scored only 12 runs in two one-dayers here, the law of averages suggest that the two could come good in a big way on Friday.

There is a bit of insecurity when the Indian think-tank picks the final XI. I am a firm believer that India must go in with five batsmen, five bowlers and a wicketkeeper. Ajay Ratra's form in the last game makes that possible: he seems to have been blessed with a smart cricket brain, and was quite cheeky when he came in to bat at a difficult stage. His runs were important at that crucial juncture.

A sense of complacency creeps in when there are six specialist batsmen, and the last one-dayer was a fine example - India could not chase a none-too-difficult target of 251 in good batting conditions. If only India had picked Zaheer Khan and given him the new ball, it could have been a different story.

Chennai must see the return of Zaheer, while the axe has to fall on VVS Laxman. In doing so the team management would send out a strong message that it's consistency and performances that matter most.

There has been some talk about Anil Kumble. He is not as quick through the air as he used to be, which could be because of his shoulder injury. It may be showing up more in one-dayers than Test matches. The wickets he's picked up so far were not typical Kumble ones - they came from googlies and slower balls rather than the quicker ones that used to beat batsmen and crash into the stumps. Maybe that weapon has been blunted by his injury, and that could be why he is not as economical and effective as he used to be. But it's still too early to say anything conclusive about him.

England would also benefit from dropping a batsman for a specialist bowler. A fit Graham Thorpe cannot be dropped, as once Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight are out of the way there aren't any left-handers down the order. Thorpe's presence in the middle could be upsetting for the Indian bowlers. Which means a bits-and-pieces player like Ben Hollioake should make way for a bowler. But having won an important game, England may not be inclined towards making any changes.

You can score 280 at Chennai and still not be sure of victory. I remember the 1996 World Cup quarter-final - also a day/night game - when Mark Waugh powered Australia to a six-wicket win, as they successfully chased New Zealand's big total of 286. I truly believe it could be anybody's game on Friday.

Sanjay Manjrekar, a mainstay of the Indian batting in the late 1980s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan. His verdict on each game in the one-day series will appear exclusively on Wisden.com.

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