- Sourav Ganguly was left out of the playing eleven for the second Test against Pakistan in Faisalabad on Saturday. Though Ganguly has previously missed eight Tests since his debut for India, this was only the third time he was not included in the side despite being fully fit. The other two occasions were against West Indies at Georgetown in 1996-97 and against Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad recently.
- Rudra Pratap Singh became only the third player from Uttar Pradesh to represent India after Gopal Sharma and Mohammad Kaif. Overall, he is the 252nd player to represent India in Test cricket.
- By playing Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan and Rudra Pratap Singh, India provided the third instance in Test cricket history of a side playing with three left-arm pacers, it was the first such instance for India. The remaining two instances were for Sri Lanka (against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1996-97 and against England at Lord's in 2002).
- It was after 55 Tests that India went into a Test with five 'specialist' bowlers. The last such instance was against Zimbabwe at Nagpur in November 2000 when India played Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Sunil Joshi and Sarandeep Singh. Incidentally, that Test ended in a draw.
- Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf have now aggregated 750 runs for the third wicket in just 7 innings at an average of 107.14.
- Younis Khan has now aggregated 633 runs in his last four innings against India -- 267 and 84 not out at Bangalore, 199 in the first innings of the first Test at Lahore and 83 in the first innings here. This is now the most runs scored by any batsman against India in four consecutive innings. Sanath Jayasuriya held the previous record. He had made 624 runs in four consecutive innings in 1997 -- his scores being 340, 32 and 199 and 53. Graham Gooch is the only other player to have aggregated 600-plus runs (612) against India. His sequence being -- 40 (in 1986), 333 and 123, and 116 (in 1990).
- Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi scored 22 runs in a single over from Irfan Pathan. The sequence -- 1, 0 (no ball), 4, 0, 6, 6, 4.
- The unbeaten 163-run fifth-wicket partnership between Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi is Pakistan's second highest for this wicket for Pakistan against India. The best still remains of 213 between Zaheer Abbas and Mudassar Nazar at Karachi in 1982-83.
- The above partnership is the highest for Pakistan at Faisalabad. The previous record was of 145 held by this same pair against England. The pair is looking set to obliterate the all-time highest fifth wicket partnership at Faisalabad, which is of 200 runs between Ravi Shastri and Sandeep Patil for India in 1984-85.
- Pakistan ended day one with a total of 379 for four -- their second highest on the opening day of a Test after 388 for three against England at Manchester in 1992. This total is also the fourth highest such total by any side against India. Incidentally, the previous highest first day's total in Pakistan was India's 356 for two at Multan in 2003-04.
- For the second successive time in the series, the Indian spin duo of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh went wicket-less on the opening day of the Test.
More from rediff