India v Sri Lanka Pre Test Series Thoughts

i see it as last meeting in india between these 2 ... injuns won 8 games to lanka's 1 .. ;)

Nice to see the Cyclops has recovered his composure after the doubtless 'soon to be glossed over' ODI series debacle ;-)

BJ - you trotted out some interesting stats about India's record against Oz in ODI iirc ;)

i always trott out interesting stats to back injuns... and those that back them, even allowing for a series defeat for the first time in 2 years :0 ... continue to make a decent profit ;)

look at the thread title beej .. since nov 2007 ind have played 7 test series .. of those they have won 4 .. drawn 1 .. and lost 2 :0 .. there have been 22 matches of which they have won 8 .. drawn 9 .. and lost 5 :0 .. can't imagine the profit would be too great on those stats ..

regards ODis then your memory must be letting you down .. indeed india have a good record over the last two yrs .. played 60 odd .. won 35 .. lost 19 .. no-results 6 .. however thers figs include the cb series and the kitpl cup ?:| .. be rude to include these two and not the champions trophy so india have indeed lost in both formats over the last two yrs .. i agree that anyone backing india over this period would be showing a healthy prophet esp as there is one series against eng and two against SL where i imagine the sp of india was too big .. HTH

ANYOTHER.. in those 22 tests, india beat aussies at waca at 10.0 .. a test against saffers in saferland at 9.0 .. a test in england at 6.6 .. just tose 3 winswoud guarente a profit for level stakes in those 2 tests .. the rest would be a bonus ;)

22 tests ;) ... so the profit on those 22 tests would be those 3 tests i mentioned.. plus their other 5 test wins ;)

So in summary Big Joe thinks India will win the series, in other news man walks on moon and Kennedy is shot.

Anyone want to post anything sensible about the series?

pointless DD, it just gets hijacked :(

sreesanth's back. if anyones interested.
and lanka warm up washed out today with a decent chance of an encore tom.

i thought sreesanth had been sectioned ?:| :|

if saffers are good enough for england than sreesanth is good enough for india. especially given the recent performances by indian seamers.

sreesanth back?? are the rest of india's bowlers THAT bad??

quite apart from form, how can a team so lacking for harmony consider picking a** like him??

thought i was getting around the filter by calling him a t0sspot...

;\

Back to the cricket for a moment - need to wait to see what the teams are here.

Last game at this venue was very bowler friendly (for the Saffers anyway) and the Injuns were stuffed.

Anyone know if it is the same curator?

Struggling to find reasons not to back SL here - have 3 quality spinners and plenty of batting. Hard to see how their fielding can worse than the home side.

indian team kinda predictable

sehwag
gambhir
dravid
tend
lax
yuvi
dhoni
harby
mishra
ishant/sreesanth
zaheer

doubt they will have the ba lls to go in with 5 batters and dhoni.

good luck to anyone that lays that lineup :0

well didnt this very same line up loose the last test series in lanka.

no. dhoni did not play in that test series.. he returned for the odi series that followed and injuns won that ;)

Yes india were humbled by Mendis in that test series.. but its fair to assume they have worked him out since then judging by his performances against them since :)

The big question with the Indians being a little off colour of late. Is will they have the balls to produce a result pitch, or will a draw be an honourable victory. The won't produce a dusty turner as they will get M and M ed, would be great to see some grass and have a proper game.

Most likely no grass and a pitch rolled to a level of compaction so the seamers can't get it above knee height and the spinners turn will be so slow the best players of spin in the world on both sides will have a field day.

600 plays 600 ; indian commentators telling us all its a wonderfull cricket pitch it is ( as their all scared of any objective critisism of the BCCI) No lads it a crap pitch, the cricket is dull, there's nobody watching in a nation where cricket is a religion.

For me it all depends on how fit Zaheer is and whether Ishant continues his jekyll (tests) and hyde (ODI's) performances up, or whether his poor one day form starts to creep into his test performances. SL have the better spinners, India have a slightly stronger batting line up (especially at home), India's quick men could prove to be the difference (if they show the sort of form they did at home againts aus last year), but if they misfire can't see Sangakkarra's side making it easy for the hosts and it could be an extremely uncomfortable month for all those BJ's out there.

what interests me is Sehwag.

he stats for the current aus series pretty woeful. can he turn it on in the tests????? though his test record has always been impressive.

kumble played the last series as did ganguly. i think kartik or parthiv in place of dhoni. dont remember the pace attack.

a drawn series, especially 0-0 would be a huge negative for india imho. cant make dust bowls so will they make greentops??????????????????

agreed, after recent results anything but an Indian win in the test series would be seen as a another huge failure

Prices look about right to me. At least the difference between Ind and SL does - haven't done enough ground research to know whether the draw is where it should be.

If anything, I'd rather back India than SL, especially with the Lankans warm up game being washed out. Have they been playing domestic cricket recently or are they coming into this cold?

In my opinion SL don't have the seam attack to make the early inroads I think they'll need to in order to bowl India out twice. India play spin well, so Murali/Mendis/Herath aren't going to be the threat they would be if they were playing say, England or the West Indies. Still a threat certainly, but they'll need plenty of new ball wickets to win.

Ishant is usually a pretty good Test bowler - just seems to be ODIs where he's rubbish. And if Zaheer is fit and firing then India definitely have the better pace attack.

SL don't have as much batting strength either - obviously Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Samaraweera are very good, but India can put up Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman against those three and still have Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhoni left over. Still not convinced about Yuvraj on pitches where you need some semblance of a defensive technique, but he could go OK here provided it isn't the greentop it was against SA.

I'm not getting involved just yet, but I'd have India as pretty good favourites over SL here. And as has been noted earlier on the thread, SL have never won a Test in India.

(They've also never won one in Aus or SA - am quite surprised they are ranked 2 in the world to be honest. Strong at home, obviously, but would probably have them 4th behind SA, Ind and Aus for performance in all conditions).

SL have'nt lost a test series for two yrs .. they have'nt played any test ckt since aug .. don't know about domestic games .. i think sri lanka will win the test series and india the ODI series .. don't care about T20 games ..

Will India really on play two seamers (including the returning from fitness Zaheer)? If they play a third, will it mean just the one front-line spinner, or 5 bats + Dhoni?

If 3 seamers then almost certainly just one frontline spinner - they always seem to shy away from dropping one of the batsmen and don't have the wontons to bat Dhoni at 6 anyway. I wish they would - admittedly it would make them more likely to lose, but it would also make them more likely to win.

Although having said that, despite his decent performances with the bat over the last couple of years, you certainly couldn't have Harbhajan at 7, so your third seamer would pretty much have to be Irfan Pathan. Whicih isn't great from a bowling perspective.

And obviously that won't happen this time 'cos he isn't in the squad. Given the make up of the squad (8 batsmen, 3 spinners, 3 seamers & Dhoni) it looks pretty certain that they're intending to play 6 batsmen, 2 seamers and 2 spinners. I.e.

Sehwag
Gambhir
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Mishra/Ojha
Ishant

Sreesanth for Mishra/Ojha if it's a complete greentop, but that seems unlikely...

Zaheer key for me, if fit and firing india are worthy favs, but the question marks over his fitness make a little harder to call.

anyother.. thats a brave call mate : .. lanka ben trying to win their first ever test in india for over 27 years .. they not succeded yet :(

Anyone come up with the likely SL side? I wanna oppose India here. Basic strategy likely to be laying em around evens when they've got rid of the SL openers and let Jaya and Sanga rack up the runs.

Enough question marks over the Indian attack (Ishant, Harbs- form, Zaheer- fitness) to make me wanna lay em.

a complete guess up would be

Dilshan
Paranavitana
Sangakkara
Jayawardene
Samaraweera
Mathews
Jayawardene (P)
Thushara
Kulasekera
Murali
Mendis/Herath

"Zaheer key for me, if fit and firing india are worthy favs, but the question marks over his fitness make a little harder to call."

I agree. There still seem some doubts - read somewhere that he cannot throw yet so will need to field within the 30 yard circle. Which again makes me wonder whether you would risk having only 2 seamers if there was a fitness question over one. Surely India must be tempted to have wickets that favour seamers and play all 3 ?

read somewhere that he cannot throw yet

and the excuse for the other 10 is?

It's certainly an interesting thought that the injuns may look to prepare greentops.

To me SL have the players capable of winning this series - the fact that India may have a slightly better overall 11 does not make a major difference.

SL will probably leave out one of Mendis or Herath - either of these would be get into any other Test side in the world as a first choice spinner imo.

watch out for prasad .. he had a fair series ( for a newcomer ) agianst the injuns in sri lanka last year .. i think if they prepare greentops they could be in for a surprise .. anyone at galle xmas 2007 remember welegedaras bowling .. he took 2 wkts in each innings and then has'nt played a test since .. ?:| .. injury perhaps ..

An Indian Greentop is an oxymoron imo

whether Ishant continues his jekyll (tests) and hyde (ODI's)

His Econ. rate even in List A is very similar to his ODI rate (5.38 vs 5.64), and his Econ. rate in First-class is very similar to his Test rate (3.00 vs 3.19), could it just be that he's not suited/keen on limited formats rather than something he does differently?

He's garbage in limited overs and always has been - given the amount of cricket played these days I don't understand why they keep picking him for it. Keep him nice and fresh for the Tests where he could be the difference between India being a good side and a very good one, and if you want someone who can't bat or field and will go for 6 an over more often than not in your ODI side then pick any one of Sreesanth, Munaf, Nehra or RP Singh.

sorry didnt see this thread

will be looking to lay india and get on sri lanka at a bigger price

i like the sri lankan line up and think it has more capability to take 20 wickets in india which of course is the key

wiil be interested to see the balance of the SL line up -

they were heavilly reliant on their main 4 bats firing against NZ as the tail was pretty long and twice 1st inns scores that looked set to be huge were only 452 and 416 respectively --- was more than enough at home against NZ but would quite conceivably leave you vulnerable in India (against India).

Mendis was also quite ineffectual on a slow pitch @ Galle and left out I think (rather than injured) in the 2nd test....early days but a suggestion that teams are beginning to find a rather higher level of comfort in playing him with all the tv and laptop aids available, maybe not surprisingly but this series should give a reasonable indication one way or t'other.

brenty .. please pay attention .. his master has already informed us that the demi-gods have his number .. HTH

interesting thoughts brenty

something to think about

what has happened to tharanga as an opening batsmen anyone, looked in excellent touch earlier on in his career?

news reports have dilshan twisting his ankle. also lanka warm up abandoned without a ball being bowled.