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Untitled Document
 The Indian middle order still has to fire
6th Aug 2008 23:01 IST
Manish Kumar
India may be riding high on the victory in the second Test in Galle that came through excellent displays by Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh, but the famed Indian middle order comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman still has to fire.
And for India to win a Test series in Sri Lanka need at least two of these batsmen to hit big scored to put the hosts under severe pressure.
And the past records of all the four batsmen suggest that they do have the arsenal to rise to the occasion when need arises.
Tendulkar needs 37 runs in the third Test in Colombo to break Brian Lara's record of 11,953 Test runs and the good sign for India is that he hasn’t looked unduly troubled by the mysterious Ajantha Mendis and has more often than not dominated him.
Knowing the genius that Tendulkar is, he won’t be looking to repeat that ill-advised stroke which Chaminda Vaas lured him into by bowling outside the off-stump.
Many eyebrows were raised when Dravid had three conspicuous and consecutive failures against Mendis and even statements like “The Wall is cracking fro side to side” were made. But in the second innings in Galle, Dravid appeared to regain his inherent fluency and was unlucky to be dismissed by the review as Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene took all the time in the world to ask for the review.
Laxman has been dismissed four times in four innings by Mendis but he also posted a half-century in the first Test and looked in command in the first innings of the second Test when he rather amateurishly spooned a catch to mid-wicket after scoring 39 runs. He has to work some way to succeed against Mendis’ deceptive straighter ball, which has outwitted him three times.
With scores of 0, 16, 23 and 4 in both the Tests, Ganguly is the worst batsman in the Indian middle order. Known as one of the most skilful players of spin bowling and his man of the match innings against South Africa on a brute of a turner at Kanpur in March still fresh in mind, his lack of runs is a little worrying.
The former Indian captain has been a victim of poor shot selection rather than an inability to decipher the Sri Lankan bowlers. But considering his roaring comeback, only a brave man would write him off.
Do not write off the Big Four of Indian cricket, they will not always fire blank. |
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