India's Tour of Sri Lanka

[Cricketman]

Lol.

After the domestic season (In which he will score 20,000 runs) Karthik will bat at 1, 3, 5, and 7.

 

[Insomniac]

Its still hard for India to solve the mystery of Mendis.But today it was a team game By Lankans.And Indians are still in the mindset of T20 game .They never looks to settle down in this match.They was just not able to play 50 overs.
I will just say GOD BLESS INDIAN team.and Yes Dhoni,Testing time as You are playing without Sachin and Sehwag.Do something according to your name.

You honestly think Sachin was gonna do much when put under pressure?

He would probably see out Vaas and Kulasekera, and present his wicket to Mendis.

 

[metallics2006]

The reason he has not been able to keep wickets and therefore lose confidence in his batting is because of the way he has been asked to field most of the time when he is picked for the one day games. And also, if Badri has a bad sries because of Mendis and Murali, it might be the Sridharan Sriram scenario once again. Hope he does well and succeeds.

 

[manee]

Without Sehwag, it appears that Kohli will get the entire series to open in.:help Shikhar Dhawan will be a much, much better option, imo. He has more experience, a better record and did well against high class bowling in the IPL whereas Kohli has played a few List A games spliced in with a few U19 games, which really cannot be counted with much credence whatsoever. I'd also like Uthappa to be considered ahead of Virat Kohli too. Uthappa has not filled his boots in ODI cricket as of yet, but has shown himself a destructive opener of similar potential, albeit slight less ability, than Sehwag to take a game away from the opposition. He is also an opener by trade, something which I don't believe Virat Kohli is.

Good to see Munaf Patel bowl well, but he still needs work as he occasionally gives the 'hit me' ball amongst a lot of very good ones. If he can cut those deliveries out (they tend to be wide half volleys or just very short) then he can become the miser that his idol, Glenn Mcgrath, was. Interestingly enough, Mcgrath did occasionally bowl the wide half volley in ODIs too; of course, much less frequent than Munaf, but an interesting note nonetheless.

I also think that it is pointless to keep 'bigging up' (for lack of a better term) Badrinath's credentials in OD cricket. He has had just one very good OD season amongst a fantastic FC three years and the two must not be confused with each other. Badrinath should be in the team, mainly due to performing in the 'feeder' competitions such as the Challenger Trophy, India A tours and Emerging Players Tournament and his very good fielding but success is by no means guaranteed for him in OD cricket.

 

[.Mob]

This is no excuse, but the Tn side has a powerhouse top order with people like Vijay there, and Badri has said it himself, he doesn't get enough opportunities to turn his fifties into hundreds, but even still an average of 40+ is pretty damn good.

And I agree about Robin and Dhawan, it's just stupid to keep young openers out and giving the spot to a middle order player.

 

[sohum]

What hit us hard in this match was the regularly useless Sri Lankan fast bowlers getting wickets. I think we were as much to blame for giving the wickets to them by not scoring proactively. Of course, our most consistent batsman of late falling in the first over did not help.

This is the kind of loss we should just forget about.

The actual problem is that we have a squad with only 1 opener. I honestly cannot see anyone else who can open and am somewhat disappointed that Kohli is being sacrificed.

From a batting perspective, we miss Sehwag and Sachin tremendously, as they seemed to be the only ones who had a grip on Mendis.

 

[nikhil_99]

Its very easy to say for Dhoni,but at the moment Indian team cant find "any answers" to get rid of Mendis,but Indian captian thinks they can find answers..If they wont be able to solve him soon they will loose the series...


Mendis not a permanent threat - Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, has said that Ajantha Mendis was an unusual bowler in comparison to Muttiah Muralitharan, but it's only a matter of time before batsmen are able to pick his variations easily. Mendis continued to trouble the Indians after picking up 3 for 21 off nine overs in Sri Lanka's easy eight-wicket win in the first one-dayer in Dambulla. Muralitharan too chipped in with three wickets to skittle India out for a paltry 146.
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/slvind/content/current/story/365428.html

 

[Dare]

There has been a lack of credit given to the Sri Lankan team on these forums. Everyone seems to be saying that some Indian players are struggling and should be left out but Sri Lanka has out played India in every aspect of the game.
In the field they have been far superior than India.
Despite what Dhoni says Mendis has been a huge difference because I have no doubt that with just Murli in the team India would have done way better. I know its kind of stating the obvious but both captains have said that Mendis would not trouble them.
The batsman were great in both forms of the game and it might have to do with Indias bowlers being bad but Sanga and Mahela were head and shoulders above the rest.

I seriously believe that Sri Lanka with this team that just beat India have what it takes to challenge the top 2 sides in the world.

 

[khalek]

5 match series, isnt this one? losing the third one in row will only make the series dead.

Yeah but I still think India should not lose the next match, if they lose it will quite easy for Lankans to wrap the series up

 

[angryangy]

The actual problem is that we have a squad with only 1 opener. I honestly cannot see anyone else who can open and am somewhat disappointed that Kohli is being sacrificed.

I suppose hindsight is 20/20, but they must have been aware of being thin at the top when they had to pick replacements. Out of the players they could have called up, I wonder what was wrong with Shikhar Dhawan. He was clearly the best Indian batsman in Brisbane, has a great domestic record and was also prominent in the IPL. Plus, he's from Delhi so the political gods would still be satisfied.

Still, India can safely think they've played their worst. There's time to bounce back.

I know its kind of stating the obvious but both captains have said that Mendis would not trouble them.

It's because you can't go around thinking your planning sucks, at least not if you want to win. The Indians have to be confident that what they are doing to learn Mendis is going to work eventually, after all, they have had some small successes. To be unsure of the plan is to be beaten before a ball is bowled. Imagine if Dhoni had said "Oh god, Mendis is unstoppable! We're so screwed, what do we do?"

 

[sohum]

I suppose hindsight is 20/20, but they must have been aware of being thin at the top when they had to pick replacements. Out of the players they could have called up, I wonder what was wrong with Shikhar Dhawan. He was clearly the best Indian batsman in Brisbane, has a great domestic record and was also prominent in the IPL. Plus, he's from Delhi so the political gods would still be satisfied.

Still, India can safely think they've played their worst. There's time to bounce back.

The Indian selectors don't obey laws of logic. Why else has Badrinath been kept out of the team for so long, when we haven't been immensely successful? We originally had 3 openers selected for this series in Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gambhir. But strangely we replaced one of those openers with a middle-order youth whose career we are now proceeding to destroy (unless he beats all odds and succeeds) by pushing him to open.

It's absolute crap and the worst part is we don't need 20/20 vision to notice it.

It's because you can't go around thinking your planning sucks, at least not if you want to win. The Indians have to be confident that what they are doing to learn Mendis is going to work eventually, after all, they have had some small successes. To be unsure of the plan is to be beaten before a ball is bowled. Imagine if Dhoni had said "Oh god, Mendis is unstoppable! We're so screwed, what do we do?"

I think Dhoni is a fine captain, apart from being one of the only guys in our team who is playing Mendis as he should be played. Traditional training suggests to get as far forward to a spinner as possible, to smother the spin. While the thinking is good, the execution is far from perfect, and batsmen end up getting halfway there with no idea where the ball is going to go. In contrast Dhoni, though he looks vulnerable, has been playing the ball off the pitch and trusting his reactions.

I really want to see Mendis come up against a quality batting line-up to see if it is just the Indians that have overhyped him in their minds or if he has actually going to be the future of Sri Lankan cricket.

 

[icyman]

With Sehwag out,I believe Parthiv Patel could very well end up opening the innings.Virat could come one down followed by Badri,Dhoni and Yuvi.

Does Badri bowl ? If he does,we dont need Pathan in the side then.
But then again,we have the problem of bowling no one good enough to penatrate the Lankan attack.Munaf is an oddity.

India could go down,but now it is upto their batters to do well.3-2 defeat would not be bad.

 

[nikhil_99]

India may change batting order to counter SL

Jolted by the humiliating defeat in the series opener, India may opt to shuffle their struggling batting line-up as they go into the second One-dayer against Sri Lanka on Wednesday hoping to find a way to regain their winning touch.

After losing the Test series, the Indians made a poor start to the One-dayers by losing the first game by eight wickets and it will need a far more inspiring performance by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men to reverse their fortunes.
http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/3380808.cms


Whatever they do,it would be difficult to get pass 20overs of Murli and Mendis,what do you think?

 

[India2011]

They should have a specififc plan for facing M&M. They should go for a boundary every over, and take the rest of the balls for singles. Take only calculated risks here and there, and they'll go for around 6/7 runs per over.

Of course, easier said than done, but they should at least be commited to that plan.

 

[SciD]

Put Mendis in Bangladesh and India will loose to them also.