Down 0-2 after being thrashed in the second Test at Bhopal, India face a fresh challenge especially in the absence of their ace midfielder Ramandeep Singh and forward L Prabhakar. A defeat here would have a huge bearing on the young team. The Indian selectors in a bid to bolster the attack recalled veteran and local lad Mukesh Kumar and SS Gill. But this move fell flat. Mukesh Kumar, `rested' along with five other for this series, clearly showed his displeasure by not making himself available for this match at a short notice. The right-winger has rightly declined the offer as he has been short of practice because of his recent marriage.

What surprises any one is that the two replacements were made without theknowledge of coach Baskaran, who still felt that the team could pull off without the senior players. ``We are not thinking of using any of the seniors at this stage. We are in the process of building up this team for the future.''

Baskaran was confident that his team will give a better performance in this Test. ``We will come back into the series, although we had a very bad match at Bhopal.''

Skipper Anil Aldrin, who has a tough job in his hands, admitted that after a good performance in the Delhi Test, the team played miserable hockey in the next. Although he praised defender Dilip Tirkey, he said both the defence and midfield failed to play to their full potential.

However, Baskaran and Aldrin praised the Pakistan forwardline, who caught the Indian defence napping with quick-silver moves. ``They have a very good forward line but we will do our best to curtail their tactics,'' said Baskaran.

Brimming with confidence, Pakistan skipper Atif Bashir hopes to make a clean sweep of the series. He wasextremely pleased with his team's performance so far. ``I must admit that we have a better forward-line than the Indians despite the five new faces in the team,'' said Bashir.

THE TEAMS:
INDIA: Jagdish Ponnappa, BC Poonacha, Dilip Tirkey, Anil Aldrin (captain), Lazrarus Barla, Baljit Singh Saini, Mohd Riaz (vice-captain), Thirumalavalavan, P Shanmugham, SS Gill, Sameed Dad, Gagan Ajit Singh, Daljit Singh Dhillon, Rajesh Chauhan, Ravinder Singh, Gurusewak Singh, Kamal Horo, and Baljit Singh Dhillon. Coach: V Baskaran. Manager: Chandrasekhar.

PAKISTAN: Muhammad Qasim, Ahmed Alam, Sohail Abbas, Aamir Saleem, Danish Kaleem, Irfan Saleem, Muhammad Saqlain, Waseem Ahmed, Asad Qureshi, Mubashir Mukhtar, Mohd Irfan, Atif Bashir (captain), Ejaz Rasool, Mohd Nadeem, Mohd Anis, Mohd Sarwar, Naveen Iqbal and Navid Asim. Coach: Shahnaz Sheikh.

Manager: Zakkauddin.

Umpires: Jameson Hanish (England) and Gentles David (Australia).