India have decided to rest their top ranked player Rohan Bopanna for the final leg of the tennis series against Pakistan in New Delhi on Sunday.
The hosts, trailing the four-Test series 1-2, will field either of the three youngsters -- Purav Raja, Divij Sharan, Vivek Shokeen -- against Pakistan's top ranked player Aisam Qureshi in the singles.
Bopanna had missed the singles in Chandigarh on Friday due to fever and cold. He came back to play the doubles with Mustafa Ghouse in the afternoon, but was unable to stop India from sliding to defeat.
"Rohan is not an option for tomorrow," said India's non-playing captain and coach Nandan Bal. "He's feeling better now but we don't want to push him too hard. There is a tough season ahead with the Hopman Cup and the Asian Games."
Bal rubbished suggestions that Bopanna had pulled out of the singles in Chandigarh due to a poor record against Qureshi.
"Rohan wouldn't have put his name in the draw if he was scared of playing Aisam. He wasn't well the earlier evening but he wanted to have a shot at Aisam that's the only reason we delayed the decision till the morning of the match."
Despite having greater depth, India has struggled against a largely two-member Pakistani side. Bopanna-Ghouse battled India to victory in Islamabad to win the Test 2-1 but India were blanked 3-0 in Lahore. The experienced duo of Qureshi and Aqeel Khan won Pakistan the third leg 2-1 to take an unbeatable lead in the series.
"I know a lot of people say that India should not be losing to the Pakistanis but the fact is that they are fielding their best players. We don't have Prakash [Amritraj] or Harsh [Mankad] or Leander [Paes] and Mahesh [Bhupathi]," explained Bal.
"Qureshi is clearly the difference between the two sides. But this was an ideal opportunity for the Pakistanis also to test their bench. They have some good players in uner-18, under-19 but they have brought along two guys [Asim Shafik and Naomi Qamar] who are 24-25 and aren't really future prospects."
Bal said he is happy with the way Indian youngsters are performing and playing for India below the Davis Cup level would give them an ideal stage.
"Even today these boys are competing against each other. I am really looking at which one of them can go out and give Aisam a tough fight."
The teams arrived at the R K Khanna stadium in the evening, after a seven-hour bus journey from Chandigarh, and were rushed for practice.
Rastogi will play Aqeel for the third time in the tournament since he will go into the Test as India's top-ranked player. According to the draw, India's No.1 would play Pakistan's No.2 in New Delhi.
The coach added that he is impressed with the left-handed Sharan's performance in the doubles in Lahore and the youngster could well partner Mustafa Ghouse in the doubles.
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