On Thursday at the P Sara Oval in Colombo, the world will watch Kumar Sangakkara play his last innings. This is a learning curve, and the guys will learn how to get over defeats and prepare for the next one. Shastri told reporters. “The endeavour of this team is to play fearless cricket that comes with mindset”. Talking ahead of the game, skipper Virat Kohli sounded very positive and said, ‘We are not really concerned with any respective departments.
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Sri Lanka captain Mathews anticipates an emotional week, as 37-year-old Sangakkara announced in June he would step down from the international scene at the end of this match.
Still, Sri Lanka’s situation looks the more perilous of the two. In all likelihood, he will take the new ball because he is essentially a swing bowler who can be a decent wicket-taking option if there is help from the atmosphere, which the moisture in the air in this island nation invariably provides.
So if Binny is getting a game, who will miss out then?
The loss of in-form Shikhar Dhawan, who suffered a hairline fracture during the first Test has hit India hard and Murali Vijay’s inclusion in the playing eleven depends on his fitness, which will be assessed only on the eve of the Test.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra were the pick of the bowlers in the last match while Harbhajan Singh had a drab game. There will certainly be one forced change though.
India have flown in pace-bowling all-rounder Stuart Binny but Dhawan’s absence is likely to force the team management to ask Vijay, nursing a hamstring injury which kept him out of the Galle Test, to partner Lokesh Rahul. Lanka have one injury worry with Nuwan Pradeep ruled out, but are set to unleash the fiery Dushmantha Chameera, who bowls at over 90mph, against the Indians. The articulate and well-read Sangakkara would have followed in the footsteps of his father, a leading lawyer in the family’s hometown of Kandy, if cricket had not beckoned. After all these years, here he is as a cricketing legend and more importantly an inspirational figure of a country. In the buildup to the first Test in Galle, all the talk was centred around “aggression”, but just a week later that outlook has been tempered in word as well as deed.
Sangakkara made his worldwide debut in 2000. A few days later, he opened his Test account against the Proteas after being picked as a wicket-keeper batsman for the first Test against South Africa in Galle.
At a venue where he once made a series-winning 144 against them (2008), India – 1-0 down in the series after losing a Galle Test they largely dominated – will fervently hope that there’s no Bradmanesque twist in an epic batting tale.
Many have cited India’s decision to play six batsmen and five bowlers for the collapsing batting line-up in the 2nd innings of the India vs Sri Lanka match at Galle.
“I think he’s the worst reverse-sweeper I have ever seen, and possibly with the same with the sweep”, he said. The manner in which they won the game will give them immense confidence.
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Despite all talk of aggression and winning attitude, when it mattered most, the Indian players failed to bring up the goods with both bat and ball.
