The Indian bowling attack not only lacked penetration yesterday, but ideas as well. what is bowling coach Eric Simmons doing could be a fair question
The Indian bowling attack not only lacked penetration yesterday, but ideas as well. What is bowling coach Eric Simmons doing could be a fair question
Down in Galle, Tharanga Paranavithana, having survived the Lahore terrorist attack 17 months earlier, pulled together an emotional-charged maiden Test century. A week later, to show that it wasn't an adrenaline-pumping fluke, he wrote a similar script.
Tight, disciplined and effective batting on a pitch that was dry with some bounce, but later became two-paced, enabled him to bat his way through some occasional tricky patches. It helped Sri Lanka, with Kumar Sangakkara adding his second century of the series, to reach 312 for two wickets at the end of Day One of this second Test.
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This is simply not good enough for a side that is allegedly No1 in the ICC Test rankings and are about to surrender the lead to Sri Lanka, which itself is questionable, not having won a Test series in Sri Lanka, Australia or South Africa. With Harbhajan Singh the only senior bowler in the ranks on this tour, it also begs the second question: This is what is bowling coach Eric Simons doing to correct the imbalance? What is he doing to improve India's chances in a series that is fast becoming an embarrassment for the tourists if they cannot put a competitive bowling attack on the field? It not only lacks penetration, but ideas as well.
Last week, Gary Kirsten spoke at length about trying to find the next Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar. On this tour, he has a rookie and a young man who is battling with length as well as the ability to put pressure on the Sri Lankans.
Debutant Suresh Raina suggested India were bowling to a plan, what bowling plan is hard to fathom as there were times the spinners were in a holding position: defensive and Harbhajan bowling negatively to frustrate the batsmen. This ploy didn't work at all.
At least Abhimanyu Mithun tested Paranavithana a few times in the pre-lunch session. Forcing the batsmen into driving at the ball, aiming to thrash it through the covers, or fashion an off-drive, failing to make contact.
There were some tantalisingly close edges, too. It is where the bowler should now know where to bowl at players such as Paranavithana and Sangakkara.
It was Mithun who forced Sangakkara into a rare error when forcing him into executing a cut he edged and just eluded a diving Rahul Dravid. At the time the Sri Lanka captain was 94 and anxious for that 23rd Test century.
Luck though has not been on India's side with Gautam Gambhir (knee) and Yuvraj Singh (virus) allowing Suresh Raina, who has played a record 98 ODIs to at last make Test debut. He displayed confidence, too, when fronting up to the media at the post-match conference with the view that not all is lost.
"As I see it, we will not be under pressure even if they put a big total on the board," he said. "We also have good batsmen. There will be three days and anything can happen, especially if there is a good partnership. We have players who have done well everywhere."
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