Anything less than 20 wickets won’t suffice if the No. 1 side in the world is to go back home with their faces saved
Sidharth Monga at the P Sara Oval02-Aug-2010The P Sara Oval is a quiet old-world ground built on what used to be marshy land in Borella, beyond which, it seems, lies nothing. Somewhere around is Sri Lanka’s largest prison, the maximum security Welikada, spread over 48 acres of land. India are playing the series-decider in fitting surroundings. For they are themselves in jail. The batsmen put them there through their show in Galle, and the bowlers now need to become escape artists. Anything less than 20 wickets won’t suffice if the No. 1 side in the world is to go back home with their faces saved.It has been a tour full of woe for India. They lost Zaheer Khan even before boarding the flight, Sreesanth was gone on the first day of training, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh have been battling flu, and Gautam Gambhir’s series lasted only five deliveries before a knee injury came calling. Ask MS Dhoni about team news, and he says, “Injury list, you mean?”That they would have been resting at home, nursing tired bodies, had the BCCI not agreed to this out-of-FTP tour is likely to have crossed their minds. Especially since India haven’t fielded a full-strength team in any form of the game since Sri Lanka’s tour of India last year.Injuries are just the start of the story though. India’s bowling, Harbhajan included, has scarcely looked like troubling batsmen, even in the tour game. Take away one session on an overcast day on a pitch under covers and rain for a day, and the bowlers have only endurance and fitness to show for their efforts so far. The fast bowlers don’t seem to have the skill for these pitches – swing, both conventional and reverse. They both hit the deck, and need seam movement, which is all but absent in Sri Lanka. That India stuck with the same attack for the first two Tests shows the kind of confidence the team management has in Munaf Patel and Amit Mishra.All this made the role of the batsmen even more important, and they crumbled in Galle against an inspired out-going Muttiah Muralitharan and a dangerous in-coming Lasith Malinga. Still, they had no business losing that match in three-and-a-half days of cricket. Virender Sehwag refused to leave wide deliveries when India were batting to save the Test; Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar made different kinds of errors in the first innings, and under immense pressure when following on, India could just not hang in.On a tour such as this, it isn’t surprising that the team is holding on to little crumbs of comfort, like the updating of the ICC tables that secured their No. 1 ranking. “Of course, being the captain, I have reason to feel proud, but all credit to the team… To the players… After all, it’s a team effort,” Dhoni told the Kolkata-based after he came to know India can’t lose their top spot in Sri Lanka.Before the ICC updated their tables, the batsmen upgraded their application and made sure they didn’t break under the pressure of 642 runs on the SSC scoreboard. After their bowling show, the best the batsmen could have done was keeping the series alive, and despite the odd nervy moment they managed it.Now India need something that has looked out of their reach. They haven’t taken 20 wickets in the series so far, and they need them – fairly cheaply too – in one Test. To make things more difficult, Harbhajan is unlikely to play thanks to a calf niggle. However ineffective he might have proved so far, Harbhajan will be missed.The P Sara Oval gives touring sides, and also sides that lose the toss, the best chance to do well. That said, these are still some of the toughest conditions for visitors. Obviously there won’t be too much assistance from the pitch since Sri Lanka know that India desperately need it, and also since Sri Lankan bowlers are better suited to bowling in unhelpful conditions. Fair enough too. Away Test wins shouldn’t come easy.This one won’t be easy either. In fact it will be a grand achievement, a great show of character, if India can win this Test to level the series with such a depleted line-up. They will need every trick they can muster: early movement (almost none so far), reverse-swing (ditto), fresh ideas, fresh menace in the attack (not quite visible on the surface), flawless fielding (can’t be accused of that so far). And then some special batting. India’s predicament is such that all of those put together would amount to just an escape. The inmates of Welikada would approve.
