India hope to break jinx

Twenty-three Tests have been played at the Iqbal stadium in Faisalabad, out of which only 11 produced a result; 12 have ended in draws.

On 18 occasions, the captain winning the toss elected to bat, but only five times has the team gone on to win, while 11 games have been drawn. On five occasions when the toss-winning captain decided to bowl first, two Tests resulted in wins for the toss-winning side, while on two occasions the decision backfired, while one match ended in draw.

India has a none-too-impressive record at Faisalabad. Three out of their four matches ended in draws there and in 1982-83 they were crushed by 10 wickets by the hosts.

India can however take solace from the fact that Pakistan too hasn't enjoyed much success at the venue in recent past. In the last five games at the ground, Pakistan lost two and drew the remaining three. The last time India played at Faisalabad was way back in 1989-90 and Sachin Tendulkar is the only active player from that game.

Pacers have always performed better than spinners at the venue. In the last five Tests at the venue, pacers have taken 106 wickets, at an average of 29.64 and a strike-rate of 57.01. The corresponding figures for spinners are 36.81 and 78.54. Confining to India versus Pakistan encounters only, the difference becomes only too glaring. While pacers have taken 65 wickets at an average of 46.31 and a strike-rate of 82.02, spinners have yielded 69.83 runs and bowled 142.96 deliveries for every wicket.

Among current batsmen, Inzamam-ul Haq tops the batting charts for Pakistan with 575 runs from 6 games with two hundreds at an average of 52.27. In fact both his hundreds were scored in one game against England.

Shoaib Akhtar, with 13 wickets from 2 games, at 25.31, tops the bowling charts. Danish Kaneria has taken 11 wickets, but they have come in four Tests at an average of 53.27. Shahid Afridi has taken 6 wickets in 2 games at a measly average of 22.17. He could turn out to be Pakistan's trump-card on this wicket.

There have been three Test matches at Faisalabad, in which at least one full day's play was lost because of rain, bad weather and clashes with the umpire. They are:

Pak v Aus -- 1979-80 -- (first day was lost)
Pak v Eng -- 1987-88 -- (third day was lost due to Shakoor Rana/Mike Gatting controversy)
Pak v Zim -- 1998-99 -- (all five days were lost because of heavy fog).

The first and second games were drawn, while the third was abandoned since not even the toss was made. For the same reason, the third game is not included into cricket records also.

Playing record of each country:

Toss record:

Highest Individual Scores:

Highest partnership for each wicket:

Best bowling in an innings:

Best bowling in a match:

Note: The best match figures by an Indian bowlers have been 7 for 220 by Kapil Dev in 1982-83

Tests between India and Pakistan: