The last two days has seen a lot of talk about the game’s spirit, sportsmanship etc. following the no ball bowled by the Sri Lankan off spinner, Suraj Randiv, to Virendar Sehwag. The no ball ensured that India got the required one run to win the game and also that Sehwag remained unbeaten on 99.
Sri Lanka’s captain Kumar Sangakkara has appealed to the ICC to ensure that the UDRS is used for all the Test matches as a rule and no longer as an experiment. The Lankan captain was referring to the decision taken by the BCCI to not include the UDRS to be used for the Test series between India and Sri Lanka.
India play Sri Lanka in the three Test match series that starts from the 18th of July at Galle. Here are strengths and weaknesses for both the sides for that series:
Looking at the way Sri Lanka is playing in this tournament, it does look difficult for the Indians to win their fifth edition of the tournament and the first in the last 15 years. Currently, as things stand, the Indians look like they may compete, but beating Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka will need much more than that.
India beat Sri Lanka in the second game of the tri-series in Zimbabwe, by a whopping margin of seven wickets and with almost 40 balls to spare. Rohit Sharma was the star of the show, as he slammed his second successive century in ODIs to lead the side to a win over the Sri Lankans.
Sri Lanka lost a crucial player even before their campaign in the ICC World T20 had begun as their top off-spin bowler, Muthiah Muralitharan, has been declared unfit and was ruled out of the ICC World T20 tournament due to a groin injury. Murali had sustained this injury in the game against New Zealand which was also the opening encounter of the tournament. Muralitharan will not rest for two to three weeks, and Murali may miss out of the series against New Zealand to be played in the USA.
Even as Yuvraj Singh tries to regain his form back in the ongoing IPL, the county of Middlesex has said that they will not be signing the middle-order batsman from India. The county of Middlesex has cancelled the contract that it had earlier signed with Yuvraj Singh after it was found that they would not get an NOC from the Indian cricket board to play in their Twenty20 Cup.