By Brian Thomas
Go for Gold.
Sri Lanka, despite the inclement weather, is on full throttle for the forthcoming white ball series against New Zealand scheduled to get underway at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium with T 20 version and ending up with the ODI format in Pallekele.
Pakistan, who nearly gave Australia a shell shock at the MCG on Monday, travelled to the Western state Adelaide to play the second ODI come Friday.
India might travel without regular Captain Rohit Sharma for the first of the 5-Test series in Perth scheduled to get underway on the 22nd of November.
New Zealand, who lost the Test series to Sri Lanka, will now know that they have the talent to beat Sri Lanka in subcontinent conditions with their confidence bubbling after they inflected a historic 3 nil-white wash against a strong Indian line up in the Indian backyard itself, that too on spin friendly wickets. The Kiwi spinners were more effective than the Indian spinners, hence, Indian pundits are still to gather their thoughts on how their batters failed against spin.
I am surprised that the media has not given due respect to the unsung hero, Rangana Herath, the brains behind the Kiwi spin cordon. In all honesty, Rangana has been an unsung hero even during his playing days.
Sri Lanka obviously will be confident after beating India in the ODI format, outplaying West Indies in both T 20 and in the ODI games. In fact, Sri Lanka gave the Calypso Kings better known as white ball masters a lot of homework to do when negotiating spin. Coach Sanath Jayasuriya is sharper in his mindset, he will ensure complacency does not creep into Charith Asalanka and his combination. He will constantly remind his boys the fate India faced when taking New Zealand for granted in the Test series, which now has an effect on them qualifying for the WTC finals coming up in the summer of 2025 at Lords.
Ravi Shastri, the former Indian coach and star sports commentator, even stated that Sri Lanka is hopeless and that India will be at the WTC finals for sure.
Sunil Gavaskar seems very pessimistic about India’s chances against Australia in the 5-match Test series and has urged chairman of Selectors Ajith Aggarkar to appoint Jasprit Bumrah to Captain the entire series. Many presume Gavashar stated this because of Rohit Sharma’s unavailability for the Perth Test and also taking into consideration his poor form and leadership prowess in the recently concluded Test series.
Let’s look at the flip side of the coin. In the last ten test matches, Rohit Sharma and King Kholi have just 325 runs amongst themselves whilst Lokesh Rahul, a dependent Indian top order batter, has accounted for only 369 runs which obviously is below par.
Gavaskar went on to state that India will not qualify for the WTC final. However, his interview on the subject of Indian Cricket in their recent failure gave me the impression that he was using the common form of Hebrew poetry antithetical parallelism that seems a well grown virus to both the print and electronic media in India.
Finally, let’s see how Pakistan will turn up at Adelaide this Friday. Experts feel it depends on what Pakistan team turns up. Either they blow hot or blow too cold period. Australia will obviously be competitive in their own backyard with both Mitchell Starch and Pat Cummins bowling well. However, a few cracks appear in the middle order which will need a quick look and solution