Sri Lanka v India, 1st Test, Colombo, 23-27 July

I think yes, he'll make it to the Aussie series. After that, he may well be dropped. Or even retire. I don't think, watching him play, he's enjoying it now.

Yep, he is dire for last 1-1.5 years apart from some sporadic performances here and there. Even in those he was hardly convincing, scratching around all the time.

tough call. 50-50 i would say

Kirsten's happy. And therefore, so am I.

Hopefully, Gambhir'll learn a few things from him.

SL squad -

Michael Vandort, Malinda Warnapura, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Chamara Kapugedera

Should mean that Dilshan, Kapugedera and Thushara sit out.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Dravid should open and UMB(Ultimate Murali basher) should bat in the middle order.

Don't agree with Dravid opening. He was woeful when he opened against Aus.

Dravid opening the batting is pure, uncensored torture on tv.

I don't think the way he played in Aus had much to do with his batting position.

Wherever he bats, he's way out of form, and has been for 2 years now. I think it's a mental thing. He just needs to be more positive and look to score runs, rather than just survive. He should remember how he played between 2002 and 2006.

Very surprised that RP is NOT being considered because the Lankan conditions are almost perfect for reverse swing bowling.

Picking RP would be the perfect recipe for disaster.

RP has been consistently poor since Adelaide earlier this year. Was poor in test series against SA, poor in IPL, poor in both tri series India played.

Vishy reckons Indian bats don't have much to worry about Mendis.

Here are stats of SL players against us,

Sanga: 40.00 (Lowest amongst his average against all test playing nations)

Mahela: 67.84

Samarweera: 36.25

Murali: 32.47

Vaas: 44.92

So as can be seen Murali (barring our last series in SL) and Vaas have largely been ineffectual against us while Mahela has bashed us at will.

And here are our stats against them,

Tendulkar: 69.10

Ganguly: 56.94

Dravid: 52.00

VVS: 32.85

Sehwag: 18.66

UMB: 10.80

Kumble: 28.92

Bhajji: 34.80

Zaheer: 36.70

well they were pretty much hammered on their last tour here, so their figures wont be that great. sanga has moved up more than a level since then while vaas and murali would be on the decline. the key players for sl, unsurprisingly, will be sanga, jaya, murali and mendis

for india sehwag, srt, kumble and zaheer. india's support cast has more firepower than sl though

SG wrote:Picking RP would be the perfect recipe for disaster.

RP has been consistently poor since Adelaide earlier this year. Was poor in test series against SA, poor in IPL, poor in both tri series India played.

they could have tried him out in the practice game. He was brilliant in ENG and did fairly well in AUS as well

Another interesting thing to note from those stats that SL XI would be mostly comprising of those players (7) who are yet to play us in tests, while majority (9) of India's first choice players have previously played against SL before.

they could have tried him out in the practice game.

I doubt they'd have as they had made it pretty clear that India's first choice XI would be playing in the only practice game available to us before tests.

IMHO SL team looks quite average on paper.

for india sehwag, srt, kumble and zaheer

I think Ganguly and Ishant may surprsie us in this series.

PlanetPakistan wrote:IMHO SL team looks quite average on paper.

But they're doubly dangerous on their home turf as being admitted by Sanga himself.

Underestimate them at your own peril, especially at home.

SG wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:IMHO SL team looks quite average on paper.

But they're doubly dangerous on their home turf as being admitted by Sanga himself.

Underestimate them at your own peril, especially at home.

yeah home factor is the only thing that can save SL because their pace bowling looks dire.

Its not that Indian pace attack is much better either.

Zaheer is yet to play a single int'l game this year while Ishant is still a greenhorn.

zaheer and ishant is still more potent than vaas and kulasekara. kumble/bhajji are not too far off from murali/mendis. on paper the indian team looks stronger, but this test team has not played much cricket in the last few months. the 1st test is crucial. if india dont lose that one then they should have a great chance to reverse the last tour result and go above the saffies in the icc table

India got to sweep this series for harbouring any hopes of getting to no.2 slot in ICC rankings. They would need to hope that Eng wins atleast 1 test in their series against SA.

Don't think India is good enough to sweep ANY series, whether home or abroad.