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| July 29, 2005 | Friday | Jumadi-us-Sani 21, 1426 |
Struggling trio search for winning formula
DAMBULLA (Sri Lanka), July 28: India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies head into the triangular one-day series with each struggling to find a winning formula. The three teams have been hit form, fitness and selection problems, making none of them strong favourites in the tournament which opens at this Buddhist town on Saturday with a day-night match between India and Sri Lanka.
India are without their world record-holding opener Sachin Tendulkar, ruled out following an elbow surgery. His absence has affected the balance of the team, especially at the top order. The West Indies are without their top batsmen, including Brian Lara, following a contract dispute between players and their cricket board. Their depleted team lost both recent Tests against the hosts.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, are concerned about the form of their key batsmen and fitness of ace seamer Chaminda Vaas, who is a doubtful starter for the initial matches due to a hamstring strain.
“We had a disappointing tour of Sri Lanka last year, but that does not mean it will be the same this time also,” said India’s new captain Rahul Dravid, leading the country for the first time in a full series. Under recently appointed coach Greg Chappell, India will be hoping to improve on their record of just nine victories in 23 one-dayers last year, a poor return that included five victories against lowly the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Bangladesh.
India’s problems begin at the top as the absence of Tendulkar — who has amassed 13,642 runs at an average of 44.43 in one day cricket — has forced them to try out a new partner with the explosive Virender Sehwag. India are already sweating over experienced batsman Saurav Ganguly, serving a six-match ban for his team’s slow over-rate while captaining their team in a home series against Pakistan in April.
Ganguly, who has so far served two games of the ban, has been named as a 16th member of the squad as a pending decision by an arbitrator on his suspension is expected to be announced before the tournament starts. Dravid at least has the luxury of having a full-strength bowling attack at his disposal, but expects his seamers and spinners to show more consistency in crunch situations.
The Indian bowling left a lot to be desired last season, especially in the home series against Pakistan who won four successive one-dayers after losing the first two to clinch the series 4-2. Sri Lanka should be in confident mood having won the Test series against a weakened West Indian side, but the low scoring matches suggested their batting performance was below par.
None of their three specialist batsmen — skipper Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene — scored a half-century in four Test innings. Jayasuriya’s form worries Sri Lanka the most as he holds the key to his team’s fortunes in the shorter version of the game because of his ability to destroy any attack with a wide range of strokes.
The only consolation for Sri Lanka was that wicket-keeper/batsman Kumar Sangakkara clicked ahead of the tri-series as he scored a century in the second innings of the second Test against the West Indies.
Another encouraging sign for Sri Lanka is the form of veteran spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who grabbed 17 wickets in two Tests after returning to international cricket. He had been out for nearly a year due to a shoulder injury.
“We are looking at a couple of new players in this series and this is an important stepping-stone for the 2007 World Cup,” Tom Moody, Sri Lanka’s Australian coach, said the hosts warmed up for the tournament with a day-night practice match on Thursday.
“We have got a chance to continue the good form that Sri Lanka has had in one-day cricket during the past couple of years and also build in a few areas that will make us even better,” he added.
The West Indies looked short of batting resources in both the Tests, relying heavily on captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Chanderpaul, however, said his team would try to give a better performance in one-dayers.
“Our guys are accustomed to playing one-day cricket so it should be better for us. We just want to come out and play some positive cricket,” he said.
SQUADS:
Sri Lanka: Marvan Atapattu (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Farveez Maharoof, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga.
West Indies: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Ryan Ramdass, Xavier Marshall, Sylvester Joseph, Runako Morton, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin, Omari Banks, Tino Best, Daren Powell, Jermaine Lawson, Ricardo Powell, Kerry Jeremy, Dwayne Smith, Deighton Butler
India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Vangipurappu Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao, Jai P. Yadav, Mahendra Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Ashish Nehra.—Agencies
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