Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly on Friday said he hoped to get back to winning ways in the day-night one-dayer against Pakistan here at the Eden Gardens. "This is an important fixture for us and we hope to win," Ganguly said after being declared fit for Saturday's match, being held as part of platinum jubilee celebrations of the Indian cricket board.
Ganguly passed a fitness test conducted by physio Andrew Leipus after missing the last two Tests of a four-match series against Australia with a groin injury.
"It's good to be back in the team," said the Indian skipper. "We've not been in the best of forms lately but winning the last Test against Australia has helped the team morale."
India's consolation win in Bombay could not prevent Australia from taking the series 2-1, their first Test series victory in India in 35 years.
India's performance in recent one-dayers was not good either but Ganguly felt it was only a matter of time before the team started winning again.
"We have not been doing as well as we did over the past two years but it is only a matter of time before things turn around," said Ganguly, India's most successful Test captain.
India have lost three consecutive one-dayers to Pakistan after winning the Test and one-day series in Pakistan in March this year but Ganguly felt they stood a good chance of victory on Saturday.
"Pakistan are a tough side but we hope to do well tomorrow," said Ganguly, who will be batting in the middle-order. "Let us see how the teams play under pressure in front of a huge crowd," said Ganguly.
Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul Haq also said he was looking forward to the match.
"We've been beating India recently and hope to win tomorrow's game as well," said Inzamam. "A match against India is always special and so is playing in Calcutta."
PAKISTAN: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umer, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naveedul Hassan, Younis Khan, Salman Butt, Riaz Afridi, Aamir Basheer.
INDIA: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sridharan Sriram, Dinesh Karthik.