Sri Lanka vs India: Focus on Spin

This summer when India tour Sri Lanka, there is no doubt that 4 of the most talented spinners in world cricket will be on show.  Sri Lanka have the great Muttiah Muralitharan with over 1000 wickets to his name in international cricket and the man hyped to be his successor, Ajantha Mendis.  India’s spinners (Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh) have a combined wickets tally of almost 1500 in international cricket.  Therefore all the statistics point to this series being a battle of guile and deception which is a refreshing sight after the recent run-fests in T20 and ODI cricket.  Murali may have had an average of 36.7 in the IPL but this series will be a totally different ball game.

All the hype going into this series has been about Ajantha Mendis and his mystery balls following his destruction of the Indian ODI batting line-up in the Asia Cup Final after which MS Dhoni admitted his team could not pick him.  Mendis has the ability to bowl googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers, legbreaks and the new ‘flicker’ which he seems to have invented himself.  This ball is held between the thumb, forefinger and the middle finger, and instead of a regular release, the ball is flicked by the fingers, resulting in an unpredictable delivery.  Mendis has only played 8 ODIs and is yet to make his Test debut so is still an unknown quantity who batsmen are learning to get to grips with.  The media has hyped him to be the future of spin bowling but a more down-to-earth approach would probably suit him better.  So far all his victims have come easy being totally baffled by the variations.  However this Indian Test batting line-up has seen it all before and due to all the hype, are very unlikely to be underestimating Mendis. His big test will come if they are able to pick his deliveries out of the hand. Many spin bowlers in the past have burst onto the scene seemingly unplayable but after a while batsmen have found them out and their careers faded away.

If Mendis needed a tutor to help him out an any point, there can be none better than Muttiah Muralitharan. Murali has been in the game and  has not only mastered deceiving the batsman on any surface around the world but has also overcome plenty of controversy and media hype.  Mendis’s development will also be a satisfying prospect for Muralitharan himself who has never really had the chance to bowl in tandem with a top spin bowler.  It will also give him the motivation to keep playing for a few more years because since he has passed Shane Warne’s wickets tally, there is not much more left for him to achieve in the game.  With that said, Murali will also face a challenge of sorts with the Indian batting line-up.  In the CB ODI Series earlier this year, Murali averaged over 45 against the Indians, with youngsters such as Gautam Gambhir picking and playing him better than ever.

One the other side, we have India’s spinners who for the first time have been totally overshadowed by the opposition’s attack in the media.  India has a proud spin history and in this decade, it has been Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh who have had to continue the legacy.  This series will be very important for both of them as direct comparisons are likely to be made with the opposition.  However, recently when their names have been mentioned, little has been said of spin bowling.  Kumble has taken over as Indian Test Captain and this has seemed to take the focus away from his bowling.  He has averaged over 40 this year and in the South African Test Series he only took 4 wickets in comparison to Harbhajan’s 19 victims.  Kumble needs to remember India’s success as a Test team heavily relies on the strength of the spin department and he has to contribute to this significantly.  The way he juggles bowling with the captaincy will determine whether India can bowl out Sri Lanka and in the future, it will determine his legacy as a captain.

His teammate, Harbhajan, is making his comeback in this series after the much publicised slap-gate.  The last 12 months have been littered with controversy for Harbhajan and at the age of 28, it is time for him to behave like a man.  People should have been talking about his impressive bowling against South Africa but instead due to his recklessness  they only remember the misdemeanours.  In a recent interview he said: “To sit on the sidelines has made me hungrier …… from now on, people should remember me for all the right reasons and not controversies.” This will be the perfect series for Harbhajan to show he does want to change and let his bowling do the talking.  However nothing will come easy and both Kumble and Harbhajan will face a major test with the Sri Lankan batting line-up and the foreign conditions.  They both have poor averages in Sri Lanka and neither have played a Test in Sri Lanka since 2001.  With only 1 warm up game, the speed at which they adjust to conditions will be a challenge and finding the right length will be important.

All in all, this series is set up to be one for the purist and will no doubt give Yuvraj Singh many nightmares.  The individual battles such as Sehwag vs Mendis and Sangakarra vs Kumble will be fascinating.  I just hope the pitches are competitive and there are no controversies.  We also need to remember Sri Lankan pitches have favoured seam and swing recently and when Sri Lanka bowled England out for 81 it was mainly pace bowlers who took wickets.  The likes of Vaas and Ishant Sharma may have an equally important role as the bowlers I have discussed here.  When it comes to predictions, this series is very close but I think it will depend on whether India can bowl Sri Lanka out. The Indian attack is yet to have much success in Sri Lanka but apart from Mahela and Kumar, the Sri Lankan batting could be fragile.  For top wicket taker I will have to go for Muralitharan - he knows these pitches better than anyone and he has done it all before.

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