Onus is on India to level series

By V. Balaji

Galle

July 30: Since they arrived here three days ago, the Indian team has been businesslike with their training. It has been the same routine without any noticeable freshness to it. For the second Test starting on Thursday, however difficult it may be, they must have an alternate method to counter the two nonconformist spinners who put them on a banana-skin at Colombo.

In a sense the training sessions was a mirror to what transpired on the field in Colombo. It is time India think out of the box.

It is obvious what the visitors did wrong in the opening Test and what they should do to get things right. The part that could not be digested was their refusal to learn from mistakes. The batting failure pushed the debacle in bowling and fielding to the back.

If the bowlers had not let the hosts off the hook, the script could have been different. Never in recent memory have India played a Test in the subcontinent and failed to control even a single session.

Sri Lanka put the runs on the board and also had the service of two quality spinners but the win cannot be attributed to that alone. Catching turned out to be the biggest difference between the two sides. Lethargy on the field actually separated the two teams by a big margin.

It is important for new ball bowlers not to hand over the advantage early on by giving too many runs with the new ball. Tight overs were never strung together in the first Test.

If wickets are not coming the next best option is to stifle the run rate and hope for the batsmen to play a bad shot.

This never happened at the SSC. Runs were available quite freely. Harbhajan Singh who looked a better bet while bowling slower through the air and his release also looked better when doing the same. It was unfortunate he was not consistent.

At the same time, the batsmen too will have to be more selective than they were at the SSC. Lack of footwork against the spinners was hard to understand as the same set of batsmen have handled good spinners — if not better — with ease in the past.

To their credit Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis kept operating within the stumps and the batsmen were forced to take risks. The task in front of the Indian batsmen now is not allow the duo to settle down.

Sri Lanka are also not riding a crest. They have realised the importance of keeping the good work going and know the Indians can come back hard.

Mahela Jayawardene and his men are not taking anything for granted. Their practice sessions here have been more than intense.

A few landmarks are on the horizon here and that adds to the contest. Muralitharan has 91 wickets at Galle and if and when he reaches the mark, will become the first bowler in the history of the game to have 100 wickets in two Test venues. He has already achieved this feat at the SSC.

Sachin Tendulkar requires a further 133 runs to surpass Brian Lara’s record for maximum Test runs. Rahul Dravid is currently tied with Sunil Gavaskar for India’s second highest Test aggregate. And Jayawardene will like to improve upon his 99.21 average here.

Statistical achievements aside, this match can throw up some high quality fare. The visitors have a huge reputation to defend and will press hard to keep that alive against a team that has consistently managed the conditions better here.