Time up for the seniors

It can be undoubtedly said that the Sri Lankans took away the 1st day honours in the deciding test. Much was said about the pitch, with its green top, which could assist swing bowling, but it appeared to me as a belter of a track, after all the Sri Lankans also know about their batting limitations and India's newly developed skills in fast bowling.

The famed middle order once again were not just upto the mark. The debutant bowler Dammika Prasad had done his homework, in producing that kind of deliveries, for which Dravid and Tendulkar are the most vulnerable. The delivery, which comes in to the batsman and straightens after pitching has been daunting these two batting prodigies for ages together. And they both succumbed to the same delivery. Once the top order was cleaned up, Ajantha Mendis had a roll over on the Indian middle order, which has never looked so vulnerable.


Is it time for a whole sale revamp for the Indian test team as well? There isn't just any camaraderie in the team. This team is just a collection of raw individual talents, which hasn't fired as a cohesive unit in the recent past. The so called fab five are brought in only for the test series and taken away for the other formats of the game.

As history has taught us, cricket is a team game. Individual blocks of raw talent isn't just enough to be a great team. The team needs to work as a cohesive unit. The cohesion, which is seen in the team led by Dhoni is not just there in the one led by Kumble. This team can always be a team most feared by Australia, as they can only cause upsets every now and then. But could never be a team to exhibit consistent winning performances.

One last word to the fab five. They should learn from the Australians how to call it a day, when they are at the peak of their career. They would be doing a huge disgrace to themselves, if they are forcefully removed from all forms of the game. They have held the Indian team on their shoulders for a long time and have given India great victories at Kolkatta, Adelaide, Perth, Trent Bridge, Headingley, Barbodas, Port Of Spain, Johannesburg etc. Now they should have a graceful exit from the game. It is time up to hang their boots.

Can India do it??

When Anil Kumble goes for toss with his counterpart Mahela Jayawardane tomorrow at the P.Saravanamuttu Stadium, the one thought that would pre-occupy him is, "Can We do it again?"

The team composition hasn't changed much between the one that beat Australia in the famous Border Gavaskar Series of 2001, when Saurav's men rallied from behind to stop the Aussies making it 17 straight successive test victories. Though Kumble wasn't in the Indian team then, the core of the team still remains the same with Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan and Bhajji.

Having said so, the Indians toured Sri Lanka in July Aug 2001 and lost the 3rd test from a similar situation. A brilliant 96 from Ganguly in the 4th innings enabled an Indian victory in the second test before squandering the 3rd test. To add to the woes, the Indian batting line up hasn't produced anything beyound 329.

The pitch is supposed to play a crucial part in this test, with the groundsmen preparing a green top, fully known with the thought that Indians are very much vulnerable on a pitch that suits pace bounce and swing. But a matter a caution to the Lankans as well. India has won tset matches in the recent past in Perth, Johannesburg, Trent Bridge against a far better seam attack than what the Sri Lankans have in Vaas and Kulasekara. If at all Sri Lanka wants to win the test match, they should go with their strengths which is spin bowling. Maybe another leggie like Bandara can add more armoury in place of kulasekara, who hasn't done anything worth in this series so far.

Indians should have some definite plans to counter the Menacing Mendis and Muralitharan. Not just one plan, but sevaral plans, so that if one plan fails, there are other plans to fall back to. Never in the past has any Indian batting lineup been so vulnerable to spin bowling. The Lankans have given the Indians the taste of their own stuff. Traditionally, visiting teams dance to the turning balls of Indian spinners, where as Indian batters would clobber the visiting spinners. For the first time, history has been reversed.

Let us wait and see, whether India hold on to their position of being the second best Test playing nation.

The Menacing Mendis

Much was spoken about Ajantha Mendis, son of former Sri Lanka cricket Captain, Duleep Mendis before he could make an international test debut. A.Mendis, unlike his father has chosen to be a bowler rather being a batsman and has already hogged limelight in the internation cricket arena both in One Day International and in Test cricket. Indians who have built a reputation of playing spin bowlers better than their fast bowling colleagues have so far been dancing Mendis' tunes.



Mendis broke the top and middle order of the Indian batting line up in the Asia Cup final, and that too when Sehwag was going great guns blazing every ball all around the park. In fact Mendis castled Sehwag in the very first ball, which was a quicker one. There has been no turning back for this young spinner who is still continuing to torment the Indians in the on going Idea test series.

The trick to Mendis' spin lies in the way he holds the cricket ball. Traditionally spinners have used their wrist to do leg spin and fingers to create off spin. It is this theory with which batsman look out for the way in which any bowler releases the cricket ball. But Mendis holds the ball and gives a push as if, he is flicking a carrom striker. With the same arm action, he creates leg spin as well as off spin, which keeps the batsman guessing.




Also his run upto the crease, which makes the batsman to think as to what pace the ball is going to be bowled at them. Looking at his run up, it would be anybody's guess that the ball would reach the batsman at a pace close to 100 Kph. But it is his deceptive speed and skid that does all the trick. The ball apparently reaches the batsman at 80-85 Kph which creates so much of confusion in the batsman's mind as to whether to go forward and play it on the front foot or take a foot back and play it on the back foot. But at times, the ball reaches the batsman at 100 Kph. Quite often, it is this confusion that traps most of the batsman right in front or leave the line of the ball. The dismissal of Laxman in the second inninigs of the second test at Galle exactly happened in this fashion. He was in 2 minds as to how to play the ball, which was bowled at a pace closer to 100 Kph.

The line Mendis bowls is also impeccable. When a seasoned bowler like Harbhajan Singh is spraying the ball outside the leg stump, creating problems for the wicket keeper, Mendis bowls wicket to wicket, which gives little room for the batsman to freeze arms. In this small battle against Indians, Mendis has been greatly successful. That too against a batting line up, which has won famous test cricket victories.

But Mendis has to be a bit careful while playing on spinner unfriendly pitches. This kind of carrom coin flicking action might not work everywhere. Batsman can come down the wicket and can negotiate the spin very successfully. It now remains to see, as to how he scales his bowling, while playing against great teams like Australia and South Africa outside the sub-continent.

Atlast a Win, But

India may have clinched the second test in the on-going Idea test cricket series against Sri Lanka. But this win certainly didn't come in the most convincing way, looking at the kind of Cricket, the Indians displayed, against a team, which didn't have any other armoury other than 2 spinners and of course a sedate and turning pitch to bank on.

The kind of scores, the Indians put up in both the Innings were certainly not the one to be proud of, given the kind of batting line up, the Indians had. As Sidhu says, the records, which the famed Indian line up has, did reveal more of their weakness against a quality spinner than what it should have hidden. Never in the recent past have all the 4 batting genius have displayed collective efforts in putting up a big score against any team in the recent past.

The one man who made all the difference between the teams were Virender Sehwag. His kind of cricket reminds of George Bernard Shaw's famous quote, "Men See things as they are and Say Why? I dream things that never were and say why not?" It is this attitude of Sehwag, as to why not attack the Sri Lankan bowling, which gave the kind of opening, the Indian team badly wanted. In that process, Virender Sehwag was only the second batsman next to Gavaskar to have carried on his bat scoring a double century and that too in adverse conditions.

While accolading Sehwag, due credit should be given to Gautam Gambhir, who ably supported Sehwag in his quest. However, it is too early to answer the ever haunting question "Has India at last found the right opening combination for the longer format?"

Despite the win, Team test cricket India (I think this is how, we need to address the team, given that there are 2 more teams for the 50-50 and T20 formats) has got to do some serious introspection on how to counter "The Menacing Mendis". Gary Kirsten has got to think out of the box, to counter the variety of spin bowling Mendis has displayed so far. The ball which got Gambhir out in the second innings is no way second to the Shane Warne ball, that castled Mike Gatting around his legs. If this guy can turn the ball away from a batsman, for more than 3 foot, he is the man, whom Sri Lanka has to nurture in the long run. Quite a few batsman would have thought that they are happy to have retired from International Cricket, before Mendis appeared on the internation scene.

Anyway congratulations to the Indian team on levelling the series. The last time, India toured Sri Lanka, the result of the series was exactly similar to the current situation. Hope India doesn't squander away this hard earned Win. Winning the series against Sri Lanka is a must to prove that the earlier wins against Australia, South Africa and England were not just fluke.