All to Play for in Karachi.

The final test between India and Pakistan starts tonight in Karachi. With the prospect of a more balanced pitch, there may be realistic hopes of a good and decisive cricket match. This is also the ground on which Sachin Tendulkar made his international debut 16 years ago and he is playing for the first time here after that.

This series has largely been inconsequential so far. Indians responded very well in both tests to huge totals by Pakistan and indeed, showed more batting acumen than Pakistanis. That acumen will come in very handy on this pitch. Pakistan will also fancy their chances with their supposed advantage in the fast bowling department and their unbeaten record against India in Karachi. In an interesting tie up Sourav Ganguly's inclusion is linked to Inzamam's chances of passing a fitness test.

Certainly, a very promising match to look forward to. As Rahul Dravid very diplomatically opined,

[the pitch] is different to the ones we played in the last couple of Tests, but I feel that while it might help the bowlers a bit more and it might have a little bit in it early on, it will then pan out into a good batting pitch. Hopefully, we will have a result here, and it will go the way of the team that plays the better cricket for five days.