Sri Lanka in India, 2017

[prasen9]

Honestly, I don't remember when I realized I was seeing a great in R.D. & T. Tendulkar was possibly very early maybe even before he was playing because of his age and prodigious batting in the school record with Kambli.

Rahul Dravid was also very good in his first test. Then he did fine against South Africa. He did fine against West Indiea. Then, I guess around his 20th test or so he did very well against Australia. After about 4-5 series, I maybe thought that Dravid had a chance to be an all-time great. Don't remember exactly when.

I thought Kambli had a chance to be an all-time great too but he wasted his talent with his indiscipline.

Gavaskar was an all-time great ever since I started following cricket. I think for the really old people, e.g., Jay, PKB , Gavaskar's heroics at his debut against the fiery West Indians must have convinced them that he is an all-time great.

On the other hand, Pujara has numbers befitting an all-time great but I am still not sure with him because of his lack of consistent overseas success.

[prasen9]

After the highs of Bhuvi and Shami on a seaming wicket, we now have to settle for Ishant and Umesh in Nagpur. For the sake of the team, I hope they succeed. But, it is not as exciting to see them bowl.

[Sin Hombre]

Makes sense to rest Bhuvi and Shami with the SA tour about a month away.

[prasen9]

Yes, it does. Especially for Bhuvi. But, Shami has not played much international cricket. He has a niggle on his hip. So, it does make sense too. However, as a spectator (with my own biases) going from B+S to I+U is like going from a luxury car to a basic one.

Also weird decision to go with four bowlers especially Nagpur often is a batting pitch.

[PKBasu]

I thought it was bizarre to go in with 4 bowlers, 2 of them spinners, but the move seems to have succeeded on the first day. Ishant outbowled Umesh, whose stop-start career will now go into another “stop” phase unless he bowls brilliantly in the second innings.

[jaydeep]

Bhuvi got married so he will play no part in the remaining two tests.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar And Nupur Nagar Get Married In Meerut

[PKBasu]

I knew Bhuvi was getting married and so had taken leave from the last two tests against SL.

But to replace Shami (because of a hip niggle) with Rohit Sharma made absolutely no sense to me.
Since the pitch seems to be helping spin from the first day, perhaps we don't need too many bowlers!

[prasen9]

Right. From the perspective of winning, given Sri Lanka, four bowlers may be enough. However, from the perspective of managing the load on the bowlers, I am not so sure.

[PKBasu]

Vijay-Pujara are crawling along, giving too much respect to the SL bowling.

[Tolamu]

One interesting thing in this series so far is that Pujara has been batting in all the 7 days. I hope he will bat in the 8th day too.

[PKBasu]

Pujara's tendency to get bogged down makes him a very unattractive batsman to watch. He and Vijay were stuck at 41/1 for several consecutive maiden overs, then Dilruwan came on and Vijay upped the ante until lunch, accelerating nicely (and pushing Pujara along as well). Then after lunch, Pujara again played out three consecutive maiden overs from Herath, hitting bad balls straight to fielders. And then, fortunately, he has finally stepped up the scoring and got to his 50 at last. Vijay on 78*.

[PKBasu]

Good outcome despite the tendency to get bogged down! Kohli accelerated nicely to ensure that India added 301 runs during the day to end Day 2 at 312/2. This morning, 9 runs have been added (we are into the fourth over), all scored by Kohli. Pujara has faced more balls, but blocked them all.

[PKBasu]

Pujara is bowled 7 minutes before lunch on Day 3, having added a paltry 22 runs to his overnight score — while Kohli made 63 runs in the same time. Pujara never looks “in”, no matter how pedestrian the bowling.

[prasen9]

Sri Lanka as it is is a weak team. Then, they compound the matter by keeping some of their better players out. I don't see why Chameera and Fernando should not have played. Ditto for Dhananjaya De Silva and Kusal Mendis as the opener.

Wrt Pujara, I am fine with his innings in this match. When time is at a premium, he should be asked faster. Even otherwise, if he can stick at the crease this long by hook or by crook in RSA, I will be elated. He remains the one with the best results in India among the top Indian bats (over 3k career runs in India). *Ever*. I don't care how he looks. I need runs abroad.

On the other hand, the complete opposite of Pujara is Rahane. Who for some bewildering reason (small sample size?) cannot bat in tests in India. Why he cannot really bat that well in ODIs can be explained. He grew up in India making runs in the domestics. Why he can't bat in tests even against pedestrian teams is puzzling.

[PKBasu]

Rahane is a poor player of spin. His footwork against spin is all messed up, and he gets out to spin in home conditions. He plays pace with elan, by contrast, and so does well outside India.