***Official*** Sri Lanka in India

[ramkumar_gr]

Laxman dropped, I cannot believe it.

That is shocking to say the least. What wrong he has done when players like Raina could find a place in the team, why not Laxman. You cant always say youngsters should be preferred over people who are in their thirties.
Talentwise, Raina comes nowhere near Laxman.

 

[rohansen]

The team has also been announced. Kaif, Zaheer are going to sit out. The only new face is Sreesanth. Hopefully Dravid should be able to do well. What I am, guess everybody else is waiting most eagerly for is the perfomance of Tendulkar. What do you guys feel, will he be able to recreate the magic?

 

[honestbharani]

I am not sure if Sachin is going to be as good as he was in his prime, but I still think he will be good enough to be a very important player in INdia's scheme of things. And I quite like the side, actually. Perhaps, guys like Uthappa or Vidyut could have been tried ahead of Gambhir, but to be fair to him, he never got the opportunities he deserved in ODIs. So, this might be a good thing for him.

 

[shankar]

Has Nehra been dropped or not picked due to injury?

 

[nikhil1772]

Has Nehra been dropped or not picked due to injury?

Why care?

 

[JASON]

Excellent decision by the BCCI selectors and great for Indian Cricket that Dravid has been made Captain.

Not so good from SL point of view !!

 

[Jono]

This is great news

 

[Shah]

SL should win easily, India's looking weak

 

[Arjun]

What I am, guess everybody else is waiting most eagerly for is the perfomance of Tendulkar. What do you guys feel, will he be able to recreate the magic?

I don't care, as long as it's a tournament victory. I don't support Tendulkar. I support India.

 

[Arjun]

What you say seems to make sense. But i would have preferred Vidyut in place of Gambhir for his sheer aggression. But your line-up looks good given the team that has been selected.
I very much doubt Dhoni's abilities against quality bowling.

But i would predict the result to be in favour of Srilanka 5-2.

You chose Vidyut, but honestly, he should be played as a spinner rather than as a batsman, to help the team a lot more. That way, you can also make room for a specialist wicketkeeper like Amir Khan or Ajay Ratra. What do you think?

That said, Dhoni's good enough to play only as a hitter. Even if he doesn't get a century in nearly every innings like Tendulkar, it shouldn't matter as long as there is that attack in the final overs that takes the team to a big score on the back of a big partnership. He can do that far better than the other keepers. His wicketkeeping, however, requires some fine-tuning.

 

[JASON]

SL should win easily, India's looking weak

The Change of Captaincy will make a significant difference to India's performances, as evidenced by India's performances in Pakistan when Dravid took over the captaincy.

 

[shoot_me]

I don't care, as long as it's a tournament victory. I don't support Tendulkar. I support India.

nice to hear something like that every once in a while.

 

[JASON]

My selection for the First ODI at Nagpur on October 25th -

Atapattu
Jayasuriya
Sangakkara
Tharanga
Jayawardene
Dilshan
Vaas
Maharoof
Chandana
Dilhara Fernando /Dilhara Lokuhettige
Murali

I would go with Fernando over Lokuhettige.

 

[chaminda_00]

I would have the same side but some changes to the batting line up:

Jayasuriya
Tharanga
Atapattu
Sangakkara
Jayawardene
Dilshan
Chandana
Vaas
Maharoof
Dilhara Fernando
Murali

 

[Arjun]

The selection of the Lankan XI may be very obvious, but what are your comments on Dilhara Lokuhettige? He bowled well and struck the ball hard to good effect in his debut, but just fell away afterwards. Surprising to find Ian Daniel and Michael Vandort left out, since a lot was spoken about them. They should extract more runs out of Maharoof, though the coach seems to be making a batsman out of Vaas.

 

[JASON]

I would have the same side but some changes to the batting line up:

Jayasuriya
Tharanga
Atapattu
Sangakkara
Jayawardene
Dilshan
Chandana
Vaas
Maharoof
Dilhara Fernando
Murali

May be your line up is better.

 

[Arjun]

Here's a link to Siddhartha Vaidyanathan's article on the CricInfo fornt page. It's written well, but the author seems to be afraid of taking risks. Frankly, at this stage, no risk will hurt them. If they play safe, they will stay at the bottom, since the 'best' Indian side has been at the bottom of the table, and have a horrible record agaisnt the visiting Lankans. But these unknown elements in this Indian side have it in them to unsettle the Lankans and should be backed fully, rather than treated as extras, which has often been the case in the Indian side in the last five years.

 

[JASON]

The selection of the Lankan XI may be very obvious, but what are your comments on Dilhara Lokuhettige? He bowled well and struck the ball hard to good effect in his debut, but just fell away afterwards. Surprising to find Ian Daniel and Michael Vandort left out, since a lot was spoken about them. They should extract more runs out of Maharoof, though the coach seems to be making a batsman out of Vaas.

The sad reality that SL Cricket keeps avoiding from facing is that the two men at the top of the order are both getting on and suddenly they will be left with a huge vacuum to fill if both started to struggle at the same time and their replacements did not have adequate International experience .

Coaches in the past have made no effort to prepare for this future eventuality and am not sure if the current coach is making any effort in preparing for this .

May be he expects to be there only for 2 years only and possibly cannot be bothered with something he probably doesn't have to deal with .

 

[chaminda_00]

The selectors are playing Upul Tharanga at the top of the order and letting him settle. I think the selectors should do the same thing in the Test side and play Ian Daniel as a opener and let Atapattu at 3 and have 7 batsmen. I don't think we have a bowling all rounder good enough to bat at 7 yet, in a couple season maybe Maharoof or Lokuhettige will be good enough, but im not holding my breath. ATM Vaas is a better batsmen then both of them. On Lokuhettige as a bowler, well he looked ok but im not sure if his a long term option, he doesn't really look a class above to perform regularly at the Inetrnational level. Micheal Vandort should be in the ODI sqaud, but i don't think his good enough to play Test Cricket yet, needs to show a bit more for the A Team. He should be in the sqaud infront of Thilan Samarawerra, i don't think he will ever be a ODI regular, he scores too slowy and doesn't have a great record in List A cricket.

 

[Arjun]

For the Indian side, the batting shouldn't be much of a problem. As long as Dravid and Tendulkar are still there, the rest just need to support these two. The lack of strike bowlers is a concern. With Zaheer dropped, Nehra out injured and Agarkar who's anything but a tournament-winning striker, a lot will depend on Irfan and the in-form rookie Sreesanth. The young lad from Kerala is a lot faster than his more illustrious rivals bar VR Singh and Abid Nabi, and he will make an excellent new-ball partner for Irfan. This is a risk worth taking, because the gains that will come are huge. Wonder how RP Singh will perform with an older ball.