GROS ISLET (St Lucia), June 19: Brian Lara and Muttiah Muralitharan will renew their old battle at a new Test venue when the West Indies clash with Sri Lanka in the opening Test at the Beausejour Stadium here on Friday.
The two were involved in a mouth-watering duel in Sri Lanka two years ago, when West Indian Lara managed to solve the Muralitharan puzzle by notching up 688 runs in three Tests.
The gifted left-hander became the second-highest scorer in a three-match series after Englishman Graham Gooch, who amassed 752 against India in 1990.
Lara’s heroics, however, failed to stop a Muralitharan-inspired Sri Lanka from completing their maiden whitewash.
His total also amounted to 42.34 percent of West Indies’s total runs, a record for the proportion of runs scored by an individual in a three-match series.
Lara’s efforts were for nothing though as West Indies suffered a 3-0 defeat with two of the Tests being decided by 10 wicket margins.
In comparison, Sri Lanka’s current Test captain Hashan Tillekeratne was the forgotten man. Then 34, he had just been recalled by the selectors after being ditched as too old after the 1999 World Cup. The former wicket-keeper/batsman responded to his recall by accumulating 403 runs in the series while being dismissed only once.
“I was upset, but the selectors reasoned that they wanted to groom youngsters,” the left-hander said of the decision to drop him.
“I just didn’t want to quit then. Firstly because I was still scoring runs and secondly because I still had the desire.”
While both Lara and Tillekeratne are vastly experienced players, they are relatively new in their respective captaincy roles.
Lara has just been restored to the captaincy and is in charge of a team of youngsters, who, despite being outplayed by the all-conquering Australians in April, managed to avoid a first Caribbean whitewash when they scored a world record fourth innings total of 418 in the fourth Test in Antigua.
The 34-year-old said the victory had given his side the belief they would more than match Sri Lanka.
“Sri Lanka are not as strong as Australia,” Lara said earlier this month. “Although they have a couple of match winners...if we don’t drop our standards we are going to get more success against teams of lesser ability than Australia.
“We’ve proved that we can be competitive, but we have to maintain it. Now we know where we stand.”
Tillekeratne, meanwhile, was appointed after former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya resigned following the country’s World Cup semifinal exit in March.
Lara has already won the first round against Muralitharan as he scored a half-century in the opening one-dayer and followed it up with a hundred in the second in Barbados during a recent three-match series, won 2-1 by Sri Lanka.
“Lara has been in a very good form and we’ll have to find ways to stop him,” said Muralitharan, who has so far taken 450 wickets in 80 Tests.
Only former West Indian fast bowler Courtney Walsh (519) and Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne (491) are ahead of the Sri Lankan.
Lara has been in ominous form since taking over the captaincy from Carl Hooper after the World Cup.
He was the top run-getter against Steve Waugh’s Australians with 533 in a four-Test home series and appeared to be continuing in the same vein against the Sri Lankans.
Muralitharan said he was looking forward to bowling against Lara and keen to win the duel.
“It’s a challenge to bowl to him because he reads the spin better than any other batsman and he’s willing to play strokes. He’s a great batsman, but I want to win the battle,” he said.
Lara denied that the West Indies were a one-batsman team, saying they had talented players in Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels.
“I think the West Indies batting relying on me alone is not true,” said Lara.
“The situation where I alone carry the batting does not exist now because the competition in the team is very healthy.”
They were plagued by inconsistency in the one-day series against Sri Lanka as they failed to chase 201 in the first match and then could not defend 312 in the second.
Teams (from):
West Indies: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Omari Banks, Carlton Baugh, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.
Sri Lanka: Hashan Tillekeratne (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thilan Samaraweera, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kumar Dharmasena, Prabath Nissanka, Darshana Gamage, Dinusha Fernando, Thilan Thushara Mirando.—AFP/Reuters