Pressure weighs on Inzamam the unlikely leader

A year ago, Inzamam-ul-Haq was washed up. He shed 23lb to get fit for the 2003 World Cup and scored four runs fewer in six increasingly desperate innings. The man was obviously a shadow of his former self.

Afterwards, he was dropped by Pakistan, with several others long in the international tooth. Given the contrary nature of the country's cricket, these were ideal credentials for being elevated six months later to the team's captaincy, a position to which he had never aspired and for which his character and style made him spectacularly ill-suited.

But after a short trial, the job has been given to Inzamam for at least the whole of this year (though, given the contrariness, that should not be taken as a guarantee). In the next few days, he will lead Pakistan in their first Test series for almost 15 years against India at home.

His counterpart will be Sourav Ganguly, the second most experienced international captain of the age. If the series needs - and will probably get - great individual deeds, the way in which the captains conduct their affairs will be influential as well as intriguing. Inzamam should not have a prayer.

Inzamam won his only Test series as captain so far, in New Zealand at the end of last year. But it was marked by the captain's lack of involvement. When the action was taking place on the pitch he was often to be seen grazing on the outfield, his weight restored again by now, displaying the disinterest of a Friesian. On the evening of the fourth day of the Second (and final) Test, with the sun shining and rain forecast for the morrow, Pakistan needed 28 to win the match and series. Inzamam, who was batting, walked off without claiming the extra time available. He got away with it, but it was hardly astute.

Inzamam had turned down the Pakistani captaincy twice before because he felt uncomfortable about being in charge of a side with so many senior players. This hardly marks him out as a natural leader, but he claims he can now mould a young team. It is not that he is necessarily too gentle (this is the man who once waded into the crowd at Toronto to assault a spectator who had called him a potato), but too casual.

Ganguly has grown in stature since he assumed the job in 2000. Indian cricket owes him a favour for putting behind it the bent days of Mohammad Azharuddin's captaincy. In the ICC World Test Championship, Pakistan are third and India are fifth. As it happens, this is poppycock, as India demonstrated by their recent performances in Australia. The tourists got a creditable draw against the best side in the world.

Ganguly can be prickly and haughty as well as charming and courteous, but it has become his team. There was a time when his position looked precarious, made so by his attitude, yet it is precisely that which has kept him going.

Like Inzamam, he drifts off in the field, and his occasionally apparent reluctance to hurl himself about defies belief. There are intermittent sallies against his batting form (his average in 37 Tests as captain is 37, compared to 45 in the 35 before) and he has slipped to 35th in the world rankings. But then he can silence these criticisms with such staunch innings as the one he played at Brisbane last year, when India needed the runs. It set the tone for the series.

In simple terms, Pakistan's gifted and rapid fast bowlers (Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Malik) will be taking on the Indian batting, one of the best middle orders of all. In addition, Ganguly has to juggle a weakened attack. It will become more complicated than that, but Ganguly should have more answers than Inzamam.