"It's the power of the mind which will decide who wins the series," Imran told this news agency after visiting the training camp at Gaddafi Stadium here.

"With an aggressive and positive approach you can win anything and with a defensive mold, like Pakistan had in last year's World Cup, even the best of teams can flop."

With 362 Tests and 175 one-day wickets Imran, who is known as one of the four best allrounders, hoped his advice would help spur on the home players in their show against rivals India, who are touring Pakistan after 15 years.

"You can make a weak team look strong with the power of the mind and that's what I tried to impress upon the players," said the cricket hero-turned politician who won a seat at country's parliament last year.

On paper Indian team looks stronger but that doesn't mean they can walk away with the series, he said.

"For me, if Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami remain fit, the home team can win the Tests," said Imran, who himself took 40 wickets and scored over 400 runs to help Pakistan win a home series against India in 1982-83.

Imran spent three hours with 26 camp probables and spent one hour exclusively with Akhtar and Sami.

"Akhtar and Sami are the two most destructive bowlers in modern day cricket and if they come up to expectations they can win the series for Pakistan because bowlers win Tests and batsmen win one-day games," said Imran, who led Pakistan to the World Cup glory in Australia 12 years ago.

"I have told Sami and Akhtar how to bowl death overs in one-day games and in Tests you need to attack all the time to get wickets and it would be a test of Inzamamul Haq's captaincy how he uses these two bowlers," he said.

India arrives in Lahore on March 10 and plays a warm-up match there the following day before playing the first of five one-day games in Karachi on March 13.

The remaining one-day games are scheduled at Rawalpindi (March 16) Peshawar (March 19) and at Lahore (March 21 and 23).