Is Batting in Sri Lanka a Huge Concern for India?
When you look at names like Sachin Tendulkar, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid, Virender Sehwag and some others, your heart is bound to melt.
The sweet sound of timber that these fine individual make has been music to our ears for so many years now. Not just in India, but these great men have made people and sometimes even players, dance to their tunes in other countries.
But for reasons unknown, when it comes to batting in Sri Lanka, their greatness seems to fizzle out. Or at least, the runs do!
India is set to play Sri Lanka in a three-Test matches series, starting July 18. India goes in with an extremely strong batting line-up, at least on paper. But considering the results of the past in Sri Lanka, the Indian would definitely like to make a mark in history by turning the results in their favour.
Believe it or not, in the last 25 years of Test match cricket that India has played in Sri Lanka, India has crossed the 400-run milestone on only two occasions. That is quite surprising considering the great batting line-ups which http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 has constantly boasted. Sri Lankan conditions are very similar to India. Hence, pitches play in almost an identical way through the course of a five day match in both the countries. Yet the startling difference in the average number of runs scored per innings in both the countries makes one wonder.
India won a Test match in Sri Lanka in 1993 rather convincingly by 235 runs. Three Indians scored centuries in the Test match, Vinod Kambli, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Navjot-Singh-Sidhu-c78928 and the Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar. The Test which followed this one also saw Vinod Kambli scoring a century. Other Indian batsmen had decent contributions towards a redundant task at the match ended in a draw.
The next series in 1997 saw Jayasuriya smashing the Indian attack en route to scoring a massive 340. However, the Indian batsmen had performed their part in this series as well. Centuries from Sidhu, Tendulkar, Azharuddin and Ganguly had helped India in matching the total scored by Sri Lanka to ensure that the match remained drawn.
The tour of 2001 was a disappointing one for the Indian batsmen as Sourav Ganguly was the only Indian player who came close to scoring a hundred when remained not out on 98. Smaller contributions were seen from opener SS Das and Rahul Dravid, but were not enough in saving the tournament which India lost 2-1.
The last time India toured Sri Lanka in 2008, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 smashed a 201 at a strike rate of almost 87 to demolish the Sri Lankan attack. Once again, no other player was able to score a hundred. The Indian batsmen, once again, failed to convert starts into big scores and lost the series 2-1, once again.
So considering the overall records, Indian batting in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 nervous before they kick the 2010 Test match series. It is probably the tracks, and the lack of pace on it that is making all the difference, but on the last few tours, the runs have dried up.
India will take confidence from the kind of results they have been able to achieve over the last two years. After their last tour of Sri Lanka in 2008, India has not lost a single Test match series so far. In fact, India has went on to win five out of the six Test match tournaments they have played since then and also drew the one remaining tournament.
Another statistic which is noteworthy is that out of the 16 Test matches which India has played after its series defeat in Sri Lanka, India has lost just one Test match, against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. Unfortunately, what will not augur well is that the game that they lost was due to some poor batting and an inexplicable collapse.
India has won nine test matches out of these sixteen, a statistic which seems very remarkable.
Indian batsmen have been able to perform decently well in Sri Lanka so far. And with players like Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Dhoni, Raina, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772 and of course, Tendulkar, batting should not be a big problem for the Indian side in this tournament. What could be a matter of concern is that at least three of the aforementioned Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman are returning at the international level after a long lay-off and could find it difficult to adjust immediately.
That is where the Lankans could just be waiting!
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