Mendis Proves Selectors Wrong
Ajantha Mendis with his 6 wickets haul in a three day warm up match against Indians put the question mark about his non inclusion in the 16 member squad set to face the visitors in three test match series starting from July 18, 2010. The Indian side is in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 to play 3 test match series against the hosts and a tri nation ODI tournament that will also include the Kiwis.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajantha-c42419 Mendis made his debut against the Indians at SSC Colombo 2 years back in 2008 where he was marvelous. With 8 wickets on the debut he became the first Sri Lankan to achieve this milestone. In this series he took 26 wickets. Mendis took 33 wickets in the first 4 test matches he played but couldn’t continue his form as he just took 11 wickets in the next 6 test matches. His last test match was against India in Kanpur where he could only take 2 wickets.
Mendis, a right arm off break bowler started his career in 2006 by playing in the Sri Lankan Army team against Lanka cricket club. He was not impressive neither with ball nor bat, as his debut in first class cricket was wicket less. He later polished his spinning tricks and became the most successful bowler for his departmental side where he took 173 wickets in 33 first class matches with an average of 18.
Ajantha Mendis with his off break is more successful in ODIs (One Day Internationals) and T20 rather than in test matches. He took 77 wickets with an average of 19 in 42 ODIs that he played for his country whereas in T20 he took 64 wickets with an average of 16 runs per wicket. Off break bowlers usually are more effective in shorter versions of the game, such as Saeed Ajmal of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
He was selected in the Sri Lankan President XI to face the Indian side in a three day warm up match at Colombo where Thilan Samaraweera is leading the home side. the home side was majestic in their batting with three players Thranga, Kandamby and the skipper scoring tons. The visitors were put to batting on the second day of the match, Sehwag and Ghambir started the proceedings for the visitors in reply to 514 by the home side.
Sehwag and Dravid were bowled by Welegedara when the Indians were on 59 runs. Ajantha Mendis was introduced early on when the visitors were on 64 for 2, he struck early with the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar when he was declared LBW. the next Batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772 was not comfortable facing the off spinner and gave his wicket away when he was caught behind on the ball of Mendis.
Yuvraj Singh (118 of 146) found some form in this warm up and put up a stand of 143 runs with Ghambir(89 of 134). After the loss of Laxman and Ghambir no Indian batsman could barelyt stand by the wicket and score some runs. Ajantha Mendis wiped the tail early, and the Indian side was all out on 291 with 223 runs short of target. Mendis was the pick of bowlers who took 6 wickets by only giving away 67 runs with an economy of 3.86.
The first test match will be played at Galle from 18th to 22nd July, 2010 which will be the last of Murli’s International exposure in the longer version of the game. Selectors will give a thought to the inclusion of off spinner in the team after Murli’s retirement. Sri Lankans already included two spinners in team, left arm Rangana Herath and Off spinner Suraj Randiv. Ajantha Mendis who is an automatic selection in ODIs and T20s will have to fight for his place in this version of game.
Tags: