Clash of the summer in the Emerald Island

[The Outsider]

Sri Lanka as test venue will lack the loyal crowds that are present in England tests getting deeply involved in the game, nor will the cricket produce quick runs and fast bowlers dominating the scene, the hallmark of the test series between South Africa and England so far. But purely as a cricketing contest, as a test cricket's follower and fan the India-Sri Lanka test series starting today promises contests and battles which have not been seen very often and could produce some magical moments. It's also going to be a unique experience for me - it's the first full series that I'll follow when India will be playing in Sri Lanka. Somehow, coincidence and the fact that India has played so infrequently in Sri Lanka have meant that I have hardly watched any of the action live from there, except some parts of the 2001 series. If things live up to the traditional billing of slow batting surfaces aiding spin and conditions giving the swing and seam bowlers enough to make things dart around it is going to be a battle of attrition at times. Despite all the talk of Murali and Mendis, the likely winner is going to be the team whose batsmen dig in and dig in deep. Cut the frills and fancies and grind out the opposition. To win here, even a team like Australia had to go to plan B so often in 2004. Now that was a series I did watch and loved. Australia came back from first innings deficits in all three tests to win all of them. The current Sri Lankan team is stronger than it was 4 years back and has a better captain than the insipid stuff shown by Hashan Tilakratane in that encounter and India should be willing to play the grafting game right from the start. If Sri Lanka edge ahead in any contest by winning two successive sessions, India will find it hard to play catch up. They have the arsenal to do it - in Zaheer and Ishant India presents a much more formidable pace attack than their opponents giving them the ability to pick up a couple of quick wickets at any stage of the game. In Kumble and Harbhajan, India have an experienced spin duo who will have to learn even more tricks to keep the Sri Lankan line up under check. But India's trump card is without a doubt their middle order - all capable of batting on for hours at end. India won a test at SSC 15 years back where it was a win set up by their batsmen - Kambli, Siddhu, and Tendulkar made hundreds in the test. The current batting line up will have to do the same. As long as they don't try to be too aggressive, they should be fine. A lot of teams have realized that the way to beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka is through attrition and not flair. It's the antithesis of the approach to take against Australia in Australia. We have succeeded to match Australia in that department, now can the team adapt and succeed in one of the toughest places to play test cricket by choosing a completely different approach?

[kumble_rocks]

Muttiah Muralitharan will be a huge factor in this test match at least simply because this happens to be his favorite hunting ground and he did well against India last time around. Considering the fact that all three seamers Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof are not playing , I don't think their seam attack can trouble us wee bit , no disrespect to Vaas .To me, forecasted wet weather is gonna be a factor in deciding the match.

[PaiN_KiLLeR]

The toss will be crucial. The team which bats second will definitely face an uphill task on these spinner friendly wickets. Sri Lanka look the stronger team to me since I expect Sangakarra, Jayawardene & Dilshan to outscore Dravid, Ganguly & Laxman.