( left - right )LARA and INZAMAM-UL-HAQ
KARACHI, Pakistan, (Reuters):
SEARCHING FOR a maiden Test series victory in the West Indies later this month, Pakistan believe they have to restrain batting maestro Brian Lara to achieve their goal.
The Pakistan team leaves today to play three one-day internationals and two Tests in Barbados and Jamaica.
"Lara is the key to how we perform in the coming series. To be in a position to force a series win in the West Indies, we have to control his form," Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said yesterday. Lara has played just seven of his 115 Tests against Pakistan since making his debut against them at Lahore in December 1990.
Pakistan have picked legspinner Danish Kaneria and offspinner Arshad Khan in the absence of strike bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Muhammad Sami, who were not considered for the tour on fitness grounds.
"Lara has been one of the finest batters against spin bowlers including (Sri Lanka's Muttiah) Muralitharan and (Australian) Shane Warne and on this tour we are banking on the spinners in the absence of our main fast bowlers," Inzamam said.
"We definitely will have to bowl with a plan to him.
"The key to our success is how our spinners bowl to him and the other batsmen. We have expectations from Kaneria as he bowled very well in India."
The 36-year old Lara has scored just 394 runs of his 10,487 Test runs against Pakistan.
Having smashed two big hundreds in the recent Test series against South Africa, Lara will be eager to repeat the feat against Pakistan.
However, Inzamam believes his team should be able to carry on the form which earned them a 1-1 draw in the series in India.
"My confidence is not based on the fact that the South Africans have been steamrolling them over. But we as a team have given a good account of ourselves in Australia and India," he said.
"We have done well in India without our best bowlers and we are playing as a unit and improving.
"We plan to take it session by session as it will be a hard tour since they have always been difficult to beat at home."
With Inzamam banned from playing in the Barbados Test by the International Cricket Council (ICC) because of excessive appealing during the final Test against India, Younis Khan will lead the team in the match starting on May 26.
The Pakistan squad for the tour: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Younis Khan, Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Bazid Khan, Yousuf Youhana, Asim Kamal, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Rana Naved, Shabbir Ahmed, Rao Iftikhar, Shahid Nazir, Danish Kaneria, Arshad Khan and coach Bob Woolmer.
