**Official** Bangladesh in Sri Lanka

[Perm]

If he had a choice he would have played all those Test against Australia and England. But as Mahindinho pointed out they don't want to play them at home and if so they only want 2 Tests. This series coming up in Australia will be the first time they played Australia in the main summer since 96, over 10 years. If the established countries still don't want to play you have to play Test against other sides to fill up your home calender and get some matches away from home. All that just a sign that most Test nations still see us as a minnow in Test cricket.

Yeah, and? He still has 150 wickets against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, if he had been playing those games against England and Australia I am confident he would have nowhere near that amount of wickets.

 

[chaminda_00]

Yeah, and? He still has 150 wickets against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, if he had been playing those games against England and Australia I am confident he would have nowhere near that amount of wickets.

That Zimbabwe side he played had better players of spin then England during the same period. Last time i checked his record against England is better then his record against Zimbabwe.

 

[Perm]

That Zimbabwe side he played had better players of spin then England during the same period. Last time i checked his record against England is better then his record against Zimbabwe.

You need to check again because he averages 16 against Zimbabwe and 19 against England.

 

[chaminda_00]

You need to check again because he averages 16 against Zimbabwe and 19 against England.

Considering your beef with his wicket tally not his average. Wicket per match is more important. Against England 93 wkts in 13 Tests (7.2 WPM), against Zim 87 wickets in 14 Tests (6.2 WPM). If he played England in more Test compared to Zimbabwe in theory he should have more wickets.

 

[Perm]

Considering your beef with his wicket tally not his average. Wicket per match is more important. Against England 93 wkts in 13 Tests (7.2 WPM), against Zim 87 wickets in 14 Tests (6.2 WPM). If he played England in more Test compared to Zimbabwe in theory he should have more wickets.

Okay, granted. However my point still stands about cheap wickets against substandard opposition (Zimbabwe and Bangladesh).

 

[chaminda_00]

Okay, granted. However my point still stands about cheap wickets against substandard opposition (Zimbabwe and Bangladesh).

Again it should be noted that he played majority of his Test matches against Zimbabwe during Andy Flower time. The batting line up they had back then was Test standard IMO. I'll give you post '03 Zim and all his Bangladesh Test Matches. Which is about 100 wickets.

But if he had more Test against England and Australia away, atleast 3 extra series and more 3 Test matches series against all major nations. Roughy that 20 potentail Test matches his missed out on that Warne would have got due to playing for Australia. That would equal those 100 wickets IMO.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Tbf, England of last summer looked as dire at playing Murali, than the semi-decent Zims side of the early 2000s

 

[shehanwije]

How can they justify this being a three Test series, but then only travelling to play two against Australia in Australia?

Not a shot at Murali here before it flames up, but Sri Lanka play an extraordinary amount of cricket against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. I think by the end of this series it will be something like 24 Tests out of 113 for Murali against those two countries - and then in the second half of next year SL are due to play 6 Tests in a row against either Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. If he plays all SL's matches then by the end of 2008 he will have played something like 30 Tests out of 130 against them.

.

Murali obviously can only take wkts against the opp that is on the park. I guess Murali bowling against against Bangl and ZIm is like Warne bowling against WI and Eng - from a sub continent viewpoint.

If you look at Murali's recent 3 test series, one can easily find why he is such a great bowler:

1. NZ away (cold,wet conditions) - 17 wkts in 2 tests
2. RSA in SL - 22 wkts in 2 tests
3. Eng away (cold wet May series) - 24 wkts in 3 tests

All up, 63 wkts in 7 tests - against Eng, RSA and NZ on largely non-responsive to spin wkts, in away tests.

I rest my case!

 

[shehanwije]

Again it should be noted that he played majority of his Test matches against Zimbabwe during Andy Flower time. The batting line up they had back then was Test standard IMO. I'll give you post '03 Zim and all his Bangladesh Test Matches. Which is about 100 wickets.

But if he had more Test against England and Australia away, atleast 3 extra series and more 3 Test matches series against all major nations. Roughy that 20 potentail Test matches his missed out on that Warne would have got due to playing for Australia. That would equal those 100 wickets IMO.

Chaminda, an important point to note is that for the first 8 years or so in Murali's career he largely bowled only in the first innings as the SL team was not that strong in test cricket. Its only in the past 5-6 years that we have managed to take the game in to the 5th day, use the left arm quicks to create the rough, and then unleash Murali on a wearing pitch.

Warne on the other hand almost always had a second innings wearing pitch to bowl as Aus were such a strong side for his entire career (Hence why Murali's strike rate is still better than Warne's....this gap widens further in Murali's favour if you compare the two in their secong innings stats alone).

Re Warne missing matches due to the doping ban, thats just tough on Warne...its part and parcel of the game. Murali has also missed many tests due to injury (eg 2005).

 

[pup11]

The other important point is that there is surely some communication gap between the Sri lankan cricket board and the other cricketing boards, apparently one can't just say that the other boards are not willing to invite Sri lanka to play more often in longer test series so they would have to be happy with whatever they get, there is a cricket governing body called the ICC which can surely help Sri lanka regarding this matter but for that Sri lankan cricket board would also have to take an initiative. They toured India after a long time to play in a test series in 05 and if i am not wrong they haven't been to South Africa for sometime now, so obviously there is a problem but it seems like they are more inclined to play at home.

 

[chaminda_00]

The other important point is that there is surely some communication gap between the Sri lankan cricket board and the other cricketing boards, apparently one can't just say that the other boards are not willing to invite Sri lanka to play more often in longer test series so they would have to be happy with whatever they get, there is a cricket governing body called the ICC which can surely help Sri lanka regarding this matter but for that Sri lankan cricket board would also have to take an initiative. They toured India after a long time to play in a test series in 05 and if i am not wrong they haven't been to South Africa for sometime now, so obviously there is a problem but it seems like they are more inclined to play at home.

Has more to do with pulling crowds then anything else. There have toured all those countries a million times for ODIs. They struggle to get away matches, as they aren't seen a big crowd puller for most countries. Even when they were No 3 in Test Cricket for about a year.

 

[Nishan]

I dont thing Warnie found them cheap against Bangladesh last year.. anyway 2nd test is on tuesday

I do not think the Sri Lankans would make changes but i would like 1 or 2

I will consider resting Lasith Malinga as he is invaluable so i will bring in either sujeeva silva or maharoof. And Prassnana to make way to Kapugedra or bandara

If i want to replace Mali with silva i wud go for Kapu to replace PJ. But this not going to happen, my gut feeling is that they will rest 3 or 4 for the final test, ie Dilshan, Sangakara and Vass

 

[JASON]

I dont thing Warnie found them cheap against Bangladesh last year.. anyway 2nd test is on tuesday

I do not think the Sri Lankans would make changes but i would like 1 or 2

I will consider resting Lasith Malinga as he is invaluable so i will bring in either sujeeva silva or maharoof. And Prassnana to make way to Kapugedra or bandara

If i want to replace Mali with silva i wud go for Kapu to replace PJ. But this not going to happen, my gut feeling is that they will rest 3 or 4 for the final test, ie Dilshan, Sangakara and Vass

I think it would be unfair to rest Vaas, Sangakkara or Dilshan .(The first two because they have given up county income to turn up for the Country and they will feel a bit harsh done if they were told to rest and come back for ODI's). Dilshan is getting among the runs here and I think it would be good to get him playing more and get some confidance into his batting.

With regard to Malinga I agree he could be rested, but these guys play their hearts out and they will be lining up to play Bangladesh and again it would be a bit unfair to tell them to rest and come back against England or Australia later in the year.

I definitely think Prasanna J could be taken out and Kapugedera brought in .

 

[Perm]

It would be far too harsh to drop Prasanna Jayawardene after he scored an unbeaten century in the first Test.

 

[pup11]

I think resting senior players in the 3rd test would be a better option for Sri lanka, first they should think about wrapping up the test series in their favour by winning the 2nd test in convincing fashion and then they can experiment with some rookies.

 

[pup11]

I dont thing Warnie found them cheap against Bangladesh last year..

Dude.. Warnie has never kept it as a secret, that he doesn't rate wickets taken against Bangladesh and Zim too highly but since both these teams have test status (in Zimbabwe's i should say they had test status) so he had no choice but to play test cricket against them but still in such a long test career Warnie has only played test cricket against both these sides three times.

 

[JASON]

The point Nishan makes is fair though...Warne did struggle to get wickets even against Bangladesh last year. As he says Warne did not find them cheap...the economy rate was quite high...Valid point.

 

[chaminda_00]

The point Nishan makes is fair though...Warne did struggle to get wickets even against Bangladesh last year. As he says Warne did not find them cheap...the economy rate was quite high...Valid point.

I think you find it cus he didn't try too hard, similar to when he plays grade cricket in Victoria. He generally gets hit around a fair bit and doesn't take a lot of wickets. His record over the last couple years since he retired from ODIs and played more FC and Grade Cricket, gets worse each level he plays.

 

[JASON]

I think you find it cus he didn't try too hard, similar to when he plays grade cricket in Victoria. He generally gets hit around a fair bit and doesn't take a lot of wickets. His record over the last couple years since he retired from ODIs and played more FC and Grade Cricket, gets worse each level he plays.

Is that the same against India as well then...he just doesn't try hard enough against Teams that play spin well perhaps...

 

[chaminda_00]

Is that the same against India as well then...he just doesn't try hard enough against Teams that play spin well perhaps...

So your going to tell me that FC cricketer in Australia and grade cricketers in Australia play spin better then Test Cricketers. Actually i know some people that would agree with that, atleast playing leg spin.