A bit of insider info here.
I went to watch the two team practice today. I thought they would only begin in the afternoon and go on till late evening, given that this is a day/night encounter. But to my surprise and chagrin, it seems they began practice in morning itself and the Indians were out in the bus by the time I got to the ground. Maybe if I hadn't been sitting on my bums all morning and early afternoon, I would have had an opportunity to get autographs and some insider news on the Indian side for tomorrow. As it is, it is almost confirmed that Sourav would be sitting out. The only question is whether Dravid or Sachin would play. I don't think they will drop Kaarthick tomorrow, after he did well in the last game and this being his home ground and all... The prospect of dropping Dhoni seems bleaker than the prospect of either Sachin or Rahul missing out tomorrow's game. Zaheer, AA, Harbhajan, Kumble should form the bowling attack. Will be interesting to see who will play amongst the likes of Kaarthick, Dhoni, SAchin, Rahul, Sreesanth. Gambhir, Uthappa and Raina are sure to play. One of them is certain to miss out and on any other day it would have been Kaarthick. But it may seem rather cruel to drop him now.
The Windies didn't look all that serious in practice, to be honest. Even though folks at the ground told me that Lara had practiced earlier in the day (batting and fielding AND bowling, they said ) when I watched he never even got out of his chair, except at the end of the session when he walked away after a couple of interviews and no autographs or interactions with the fans. It is very likely that he was extremely tired after two days of commercial work. He was at a school grounds this morning advising young kids. So it is extremely unlikely that he will play.
Did manage to get Bravo's autograph though. Hopefully he will go on to be so good that one day I can tell a lot of other fans that I was among the few that have gotten his autograph. Darren Powell seemed to relish his time in the limelight and was bowling really well at the nets. Ian Bradshaw looked very off color though. And almost all the Windies fielders missed their direct hits during practice, including Dwayne Smith. Chanderpaul looked good while batting, which is to be expected. And Gayle was just moping around. I only spent an hour and a half watching their practice, so maybe some of these guys had already finished practice.
The strange thing is none of the teams have even been in the ground under lights as yet. There is almost no dew so far here today, but tomorrow is another day. Chasing would seem to be the best option, AFAIC, for whichever team that manages to win the toss tomorrow. I am still hoping against hope that Lara does play.
Juz checked cricinfo and it seems Zaheer and Bhajji are not playing as well, with Sreesanth and Powar playing instead of them. And as I was expecting, Dhoni is gonna miss out. Pitch will be a batting beauty, with a bit of bounce and pace (which will help the batsmen more than hampering them) and if the dew stays away, we will have another cracker. AFter all, this is where Anwar got his 194.