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Right down to the wire

Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar and his Sri Lankan counterpart Arjuna Ranatunga both believe that the pitch holds the key to the third and final Test of the Pepsi series, beginning Wednesday December 3 at the Wankhede stadium in Bombay.

And if early thinking is any indication, both skippers are liable to pack an extra seamer in the side.

India, in fact, has left out Nilesh Kulkarni and Ajay Jadeja from the 12, and given a strong indication that Venkatesh Prasad will join his pace compatriot Javagal Srinath and Abey Kuruvilla in the search for a home win.

Sri Lanka, for its part, is likely to induct out of form seamer Pramodaya Wickramasinghe to support Ravindra Pushpakumara and Chaminda Vaas. However, Ranatunga preferred to hold off announcing his twelve until the end of the evening's practise session on Tuesday.

What is intriguing about the whole situation is that the pitch is a totally unknown commodity -- it was totally dug up and relaid last month, with 12 truckloads of clay brought in from Surat, in Gujarat. The groundstaff say that this clay tends to be very hard, and to crack quickly once the water dries up.

There is also grass on the wicket -- question of course being how much will remain after the final preparation late Tuesday evening. Tendulkar, examining the pitch in the morning today, said it looked to be full of life and movement. Ranatunga for his part believes it will respond to spin and seam alike.

The man who, presumably, knows best is newly installed curator Subhash Bandiwadekar, who said it would be a result-oriented track.

Meanwhile, both captains gave different reasons for the two drawn games in the series thus far. While pointing out that rain had ruined more than two days at Nagpur, Tendulkar also made a passing reference to the negative approach of the Lankan skipper. Saying that he did not like to comment about his rival's strategy, Tendulkar added that there is not much one can do if the ball is pitched wide outside leg with six fielders crowding the leg side.

Saying that he was not worried about losing, nor would get carried away by a win, Tendulkar said that what would satisfy him is how the team plays in toto.

Coach Anshuman Gaikwad, meanwhile, felt that he had little option but to continue to send out Nayan Mongia as an opener. "When you have five bowlers in the playing eleven, then someone has to pushed up in the batting order," he argued.

An interesting sidelight was the appearance, at Tuesday morning's nets, of former captain Kapil Dev. The one-time Indian spearhead was seen taking the Indian bowlers apart for a pep talk.

Ranatunga, meanwhile, shrugged off the charge that his tactics were negative. He said that right from the tour of Pakistan last month, his middle order has been slightly inconsistent, plus his main spinner Muthaiah Muralitharan was unifit in Nagpur, though fully recovered now. These were the reasons he took both Tests lightly, he explained.

Both Ranatunga and manager Duleep Mendis have, in fact, said in so many words that their intention was to "thrash India" in the third Test. Given that thus far, the Sri Lankan bowling attack has seemed incapable of taking wickets with aggressive bowling, it remains to be seen whether deeds will match words when the third and final Test of the Pepsi Series begins at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

One thing is for sure -- Bombay is having lovely cricketing weather just now. Bright and sunny, yet not blazingly hot. If nothing else, this Test should run its full course.

The umpires, for this game, are Steve Bucknor of the West Indies and A V Jayaprakash of India, with S Bandekar as third umpire.