Irfan Pathan gave India a rousing start, claiming a hat-trick in the first over of the third Test against Pakistan in Karachi on Sunday.
The left-arm paceman became only the second Indian bowler to claim a Test match hat-trick, after India captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to field on a seaming track at the National stadium.
Harbhajan Singh, who made way for former India captain Sourav Ganguly in the Test, was the first Indian to take a Test hat-trick. He achieved the feat against Australia in the epic second Test in Kolkata, in the 2001 series.
Pathan provided India the breakthrough on the fourth ball, with the wicket of left-hander Salman Butt, who was caught by Rahul Dravid in second slip.
He followed it up with two scorching in-dippers -- the first had stand-in captainYounis Khan trapped leg before wicket and the next got through the defences of Mohammed Yousuf.
The home team suffered a big blow when captain Inzamam-ul-Haq pulled out, not feeling 100 per cent fit because of a back strain.
India made one change from the team that drew the second Test at Faisalabad, bringing in Ganguly for off-spinner Harbhajan, while Faisal Iqbal replaced Inzamam in the Pakistan eleven, with Younis taking over as the captain.
After two high-scoring draws in Lahore and Faisalabad, the Karachi track, known to favour bowlers, is expected to break the series deadlock.
The teams:
India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Anil Kumble. 12th man: Gautam Gambhir.
Pakistan: Younis Khan (captain), Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Yousuf, Faisal Iqbal, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdul Razzaq, Mohamed Asif, Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria. 12th man: Umar Gul.
Umpires: Simon Taufel and Darryl Harper (Both Australia).
Third umpire: Asad Rauf (Pakistan)
Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).
