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.
5 comments:
Is mine the firt comment??
if so I wud be glad:))
wow!!!!!!
no comment moderaiton......and mine is THE FIRSTUUUUUUU
It wud be gud if u remove this word verification:))
New blog looks so appealing Vijay!!
though im not much intrested in cricket......did go th'gh ur post, good one!!
Divya,
You are not just the first one. But you are teh only one :)
Yet to tell a lot of people about this. Anyway, thanks for your vsit and sugestions :)
Post a Comment