Cricket Blog

Warning signs are here for the Indians with the Test series against Sri Lanka to come. First and foremost they were handed a pasting when the second-string Sri Lankan batting hammered a 500-plus total at the run-rate of four runs per over, and then, the batting was made to struggle for its runs.

Of the two, the Indians will be more worried about their bowling. The batting was relatively better and managed to get to 300 at a decent run-rate with a century to Yuvraj Singh and an 89 for Gautam Gambhir. The rest of them were coming off a lay-off and seemed rusty, but come the 18^th of July, they can be expected to get better.

The question is about the bowling. Will the Indians have the firepower to take even ten wickets? Ishant Sharma is not only coming off a lay-off but was also injured before that. Abhimanyu Mithun has never played an international before. Munaf Patel always starts off looking half fit and progressively deteriorates after that.

Harbhajan Singh was unfit for the tour game, and the other two spinners were just taken apart. Pragyan Ojha captured five wickets and will partner Harbhajan, but will they have sufficient fuel in the bowling tank?

I don’t think so!