Sri Lanka in India, 2009-10

[ViruRulez]

i really dont see wts wrong in Nehra.hes got pace' date='swing n decent control.i would like to have him ahead of Tyagi.that being said we'll only play 2 pacers so it doesnt matter too much[/quote'] Yup sorry forgot about Nehra when making that post :P Yes Zak and Nehra are a must at the present circumstances for sure. Nehra is one of the most consistent and cannot be kept out. The third should go to Ishant but if the continues with his terrible form after Zak's return too then he should be sent out of the team for a few series .. regarding two pacers, we are nowadays playing with 3 and not 2 pacers it seems maybe because we have too many part-timers in the team

[Lord]

Yup sorry forgot about Nehra when making that post :P Yes Zak and Nehra are a must at the present circumstances for sure. Nehra is one of the most consistent and cannot be kept out. The third should go to Ishant but if the continues with his terrible form after Zak's return too then he should be sent out of the team for a few series .. regarding two pacers, we are nowadays playing with 3 and not 2 pacers it seems maybe because we have too many part-timers in the team

arrey i'm talking about tests we always play 2 pacers+ 2 spinners in India unless its a green top.

[SachDan]

Since when having a bowling average of almost 40 & 60 is considered making mockery of opposing team. :hmmm: http://howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Series/SeriesAnalysis.asp?SeriesCode=0568&Scope=03

He was talking about 2008-09 BG Trophy.

[Jersey #10]

zak is back

[spectre]

Wonderful News :yay: Send him an SOS to play in the last 2 matches We really need him against Aussies as well :nervous:

[The Dark Horse]

Zak rox

[Feed]

Sri Lankan cricket team arrives in India : Kumar Sangakkara targets 'last frontier' The Sri Lankan cricket team arrived in Mumbai on Sunday afternoon with the captain Kumar Sangakkara promising their best in an attempt to conquer "the last frontier". More... Sri Lanka in India 2009-10 Kumar Sangakkara targets 'last frontier' Cricinfo staff November 8, 2009 The Sri Lankan cricket team arrived in Mumbai on Sunday afternoon with the captain Kumar Sangakkara promising their best in an attempt to conquer "the last frontier". Sri Lanka have yet to win a Test in India in 14 attempts but Sangakkara backed them to break a winless, 27-year streak. "We know we are good enough to win and match India if we really wanted to, " he told Cricinfo before departing from Colombo. "We've just got to be tough as possibly as we can both mentally and physically if we are going to do well. "We can go as all our teams have done in the past and come back and say well it's still unchanged or we go out there and give everything we got and win the last frontier for us in India and then take confidence from that and move onto the one-day series." Sri Lanka's last Test series in India ended in another loss - they were drubbed 6-1 in the one-day leg - and before the 2007 World Cup Sri Lanka were beaten 2-1 in a four-game ODI series. This series, from November 8 to December 27, begins with a three-day warm-up game against the Board President's XI at Mumbai's Bandra-Kurla Complex before the first Test in Ahmedabad, starting November 16. The second Test will be in Kanpur before the teams head back to Mumbai for the third game. The city's regular venue, the Wankhede Stadium, is currently being renovated for the 2011 World Cup.

[vvvslaxman]

Sri Lanka in India, 2009-10 Mindset of our players have to change.

[Celeste]

Good luck to Sangakara men.:two_thumbs_up:

[DomainK]

Good luck to Sangakara men.:two_thumbs_up:

I have a growing feeling that Sanga is the most arrogant captain around. Ponting has changed a lot since the Sydney test and I am starting to like this new Ponting. Sanga is going just the other way.

[Celeste]

I have a growing feeling that Sanga is the most arrogant captain around. Ponting has changed a lot since the Sydney test and I am starting to like this new Ponting. Sanga is going just the other way.

Sangakara will make the series more exciting with his attitude.

[Lord]

I have a growing feeling that Sanga is the most arrogant captain around. Ponting has changed a lot since the Sydney test and I am starting to like this new Ponting. Sanga is going just the other way.

u know he is trying to be someone else.maybe trying to be aggresive.hes not like that normally Ponting,OTOH is naturally arrogant n putting on a facade now he knows we can give it back.infact i wish he was arrogant this time too.would have charged our players up

[Sooda]

Why is everyone in on the India being the last frontier lark. A lot more flattery than we deserve

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‘We are not worried about history’ : Sangakkara MUMBAI: Kumar Sangakkara is clear about the Sri Lankan team?s outlook towards security issues on tour. ?The thing about security is that it can never be 100 per cent foolproof. We have been through bad experiences before ? in ... More... ‘We are not worried about history’ Special Correspondent MUMBAI: Kumar Sangakkara is clear about the Sri Lankan team’s outlook towards security issues on tour. “The thing about security is that it can never be 100 per cent foolproof. We have been through bad experiences before — in Pakistan. “The feedback from the Australians, now playing here, is that the Indian authorities are doing a great job,” said the Sri Lankan captain, adding: “I look at security this way. Either we play cricket and accept the risks, or not play at all.” The captain of the visiting side and its coach Trevor Bayliss addressed the media here on Sunday. India will face Lanka with the one-day series defeat to Australia at the back of its mind. Sangakkara is wary of facing a squad bearing the wounds of defeat. “I don’t know how the team will react. We will wait and see how India comes out of this loss at home.” Sri Lanka has not recorded a series win here. “We are not worried about history. The focus is to relax, enjoy and put India under as much pressure as possible.” Sri Lanka has come here with new faces in the fast bowling department, apart from match-winners Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis in the spin department. Asked to comment on the fast bowlers’ inexperience under Indian conditions, Sangakkara gave a different view. “The thing about having fresh fast bowlers that is they have not faced Indian batsmen before and so will not be affected by reputations.” Asked about Sachin Tendulkar’s impact on the game and his presence, the Lanka captain said: “The remarkable part about Sachin, apart from the runs scored, is his personality. “To have survived the tough test of public expectations in India is something he should be commended for. He is wonderful for us to watch and play cricket against.” Jayasuriya’s new role Asked about Sanath Jayasuriya, who has a special liking for Indian bowling, the Lankan skipper’s reply revealed a new line of thinking about the left-hander’s utility to the squad. “We want to make sure Jayasuriya is a match-winner. He has a new role, an exciting role,” said Sangakkara. “Jayasuriya is willing, he is ready to adjust and has always accepted the decisions taken by the team management,” he added. Angelo Matthews, a fast bowler who can open the batting, is supposed to be a key link in Sri Lanka’s plans. “Angelo’s ability in batting and bowling releases a bowling slot for us. We can play three spinners if we want to, or two fast bowlers and a spinner.” Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner, is supposed to be the special talent. “He is positive, always trying. Such a good spinner had to play second fiddle to Murali and Mendis. All this waiting has made Herath a hungry bowler.” Sri Lanka will be playing a three-Test series, followed by T20 and one-dayers.

[ESPN]

Sangakkara: Pressure on India Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara believes the pressure is on Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men. Sri Lanka will attempts to break a 27-year winless streak on their tour of India. Sri Lanka, who have never won a Test match in India in 14 attempts, arrived in India for a three-Test series, the first starting in Ahmedabad on November 16. Sangakkara says his team has set daily targets and believes his team has ability to do better than previous Sri Lankan teams in the past. "As a team we can either go back as the other teams in the past have done or we can change things," Sangakkara said. "We have lot of work to do, but we are here to do well and try and win and change this thing of never winning a Test match in India. "The responsibility is on India to stop us from doing that. The pressure is on the home side. We are under no pressure, but we will have to wait and see what positives we take out of this series. "It could be a win, it could be a draw. We want to achieve something each day we are here." Sangakkara was unsure if the home side would be affected by the loss to Australia in the one-day series. "It is hard to say. Some teams react positively while some don't," he said. "We know we haven't won here and for us we need to try and change that." Several of the Sri Lanka players are touring India for the first time and Sangakkara said the inexperience of his bowling attack in Indian conditions could be a good thing. "Inexperience is sometimes a good thing," he said. The Indian batsmen having not played our fast bowlers regularly in the longer form of the game and this is something which can work in our favour. "Experience especially in a place like India is good to have, but sometimes fresh perspective, attitude and enthusiasm will be an added bonus." Several of the Sri Lankan players are contracted with Indian Premier League teams, but Sangakkara believed that experience would count for nothing and it did not subtract from India holding the advantage. "Test cricket is different altogether from a twenty20 game. Different pitches, different sides," he said. "A team playing together at home definitely has the advantage. The fact that they (India) are very reluctant to lose to visiting sides gives it an altogether different dimension. "This is a very strong Indian team and although we beat them at home (last year), but Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni were not part of that team. "Now we have two more challenges, but those are things you have to accept in this game."

[bharat297]

I have a growing feeling that Sanga is the most arrogant captain around. Ponting has changed a lot since the Sydney test and I am starting to like this new Ponting. Sanga is going just the other way.

What did he say that was arrogant?

[DomainK]

What did he say that was arrogant?

He does not say anything. That's what is arrogant.

[Andy]

'India don't like being put under pressure' Steve Waugh's Australians of 2000-01 deemed winning a Test series in India as the "final frontier" because it had been three decades since they had last won in that country. For the record, Waugh's men failed in their attempt when they lost the three-Test series 1-2. The Sri Lanka team Kumar Sangakkara led to India on the weekend also has similar ambitions. Twenty-seven years and 14 Tests have gone by and Sri Lanka are yet to win a Test in India, let alone a series. "Not only India, but also Australia and South Africa, where we haven't won Test matches. Those are the ones we should look forward to over the next years," Sangakkara said before the team left for India on Saturday. "We can go as all our teams have done in the past and come back and say, 'Well it's still unchanged', or we go out there and give everything we've got and win the last frontier and then take confidence from that and move on to the one-day series." The determination to win a Test match in India has been foremost in the minds of the Sri Lankan cricketers, and they have gone about their preparations to achieve that goal diligently. One indicator of how serious they are is in how they brought in about 160 SG balls (which India uses for their home series) to use at practice. "That's been an advantage going into the series," said Sangakkara. "We tried to do a lot more skill work, specific training in the nets to play spin, specific shots for spin. That's been working for us… developing a good defence with the fast bowlers and spinners, and making a solid base getting the guys to understand how we as a team can score 350-400 runs every time we go out. The bowlers - how they can reverse swing the ball and what you can do to make the ball swing late, and learning how the ball generally behaves. We tried to change our training. "We've just got to go there with a very strong mind, go all out. Not take a backward step but try to win. We know we are good enough to win and match India if we really want to. We've just got to be as tough as possibly as we can, both mentally and physically, if we are going to do well." Sangakkara rated India as a very good side but mortal. "We beat them in Sri Lanka with the same side, with the exception of Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. They are two extra challenges when we go there, but again those are the things you've got to accept in cricket. "We've got to go to India with no baggage, nothing in our heads, clear minds, no complaints, and the right attitude to enjoy that country for 55 days. It's a tough country to be in for such a long time, and being away from home. We should enjoy playing ruthless, tough, competitive but fair cricket every single time - win or lose it doesn't matter." Sangakkara said that if his team is to perform well they have to excel all round. "These are the kind of series where you've got to be on the mark all the time - bowling, batting, fielding. You've got to make half-chances work, try and get run-outs. Those things change games, especially in the Test scenario. We've got to squeeze every little advantage we can. "But the key is to put ourselves at pressure at training and enjoy the game. If we don't put ourselves under pressure when training, we just go to games under pressure, and I don't think that's going to work for us. We've just got to do all the hard things at training; challenge ourselves to go out of our comfort zones and go into a match fully prepared and confident and just go hard at them." Sangakkara is confident that if his side can maintain pressure for long periods of time, they can make India crack. "If they get an advantage they are very good frontrunners. What we've got to do is try and put them under pressure right from the start and make them lag behind. If we can do that and keep the pressure on them consistently, I think we can make them crack. Pressure is something they don't like. If you can be consistently aggressive, those things are going to be the difference that makes us win." As far as mental strength goes, Sangakkara thinks Sri Lanka is right up there with the Australians. "When you look at the number of players who can do great things on the cricket field - we've got so many of them. The key is to believe in yourself and believe in the guy next to you as your team-mate and trust that guy to do the right job. That is why training is so important. The mental strength and belief you have with each other comes with the right preparation. Our guys have actually started realising it now." The competitive streak has been a part of the Sri Lankan team from the time Arjuna Ranatunga was captain. "Our guys first understood it with Arjuna. He really made them understand that we are good enough to beat any side. One of the main reasons we won the '96 World Cup was that belief. "When you are low on confidence you don't really think you can win, but I think our guys have to understand that winning or losing depends on that particular day; that doesn't make you a good or bad side. If you train consistently with the right attitude you will find yourself more and more becoming a side that consistently plays good cricket, cricket that's good enough to beat any side in the world. You've got to be a good team every day and the key is to win matches even when you are struggling as a team. That's the real test of the team's character." ========================================================== http://www.cricinfo.com/indvsl2009/content/current/story/433477.html

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India squad to be picked on Tuesday The national selection panel will meet on Tuesday to pick the Indian squad for the home Test series against Sri Lanka. More... India squad to be picked on Tuesday The national selection panel will meet on Tuesday to pick the Indian squad for the home Test series against Sri Lanka. The squad will be announced after a selection panel meeting on Tuesday afternoon to be chaired by its chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth. A 16-member Sri Lankan-team led by Kumar Sangakkara arrived in Mumbai on Sunday to play the three-match Test series. The first Test will be played in Ahmedabad from November 16-20. Kanpur (November 24-28) and Mumbai (December 2-6) will host the second and third Tests respectively. After the Test series, Sri Lanka will play two Twenty20 Internationals -- in Nagpur (December 9) and Mohali (December 12) -- and five one-dayers at Rajkot (Dec 15), Visakhapatnam (Dec 18), Cuttack (Dec 21), Kolkata (Dec 24) and Delhi (Dec 27). All the ODIs, barring the first, will be day-night encounters. Sri Lanka have never won a Test match out of the 14 they have played on Indian soil. Both the teams have played each other 29 times in Test with India having won 11 matches. Sri Lanka have won only five and the remaining 13 matches have ended in draws. India beat Sri Lanka 2-0 the last time these two teams met in the country in a three-match Test series in 2005-06.

[Lord]

Zaheer Khan braces for Test return Zaheer Khan has recovered well from his shoulder injury and, having featured in Twenty20 matches during the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament and a Ranji Trophy fixture, is expected to be back for India when the selectors meet on Tuesday to pick the Test squad to play Sri Lanka. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid will duly take their places in the middle order, while Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra are likely to retain their spinning roles. Yuvraj Singh is also expected to feature at No. 6 in the batting line-up, but it's the fast bowlers that will throw up a debate. Including Ashish Nehra in the Test side is going to be tempting. It is also a risk. Nehra has done well after making his ODI return, but do the selectors want to risk his fitness in the longest format of the game? If Nehra does make the transition, he will replace one of the two back-up fast bowlers that went to New Zealand: Dhawal Kulkarni and L Balaji. India will not need a 16-member squad, so just one reserve fast bowler should do. But even if Nehra is not picked, somebody like Sudeep Tyagi might stand a better chance than Balaji and Kulkarni. Going by how Ishant Sharma was persisted with in the ODIs, he is likely to keep his Test place, along with Munaf Patel. Dinesh Karthik was the substitute middle-order batsman in New Zealand, where he doubled up as a reserve wicketkeeper. Here in India, Dhoni might not need back-up behind the stumps. There is another decision for the selectors to make: whether to retain Karthik in a role similar to the one in New Zealand, or draft in a specialist middle-order batsman like S Badrinath. Probable squad: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik/S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra/one back-up fast bowler.