By Ashis Ray, IANS
London : The three-day match against Sri Lanka ‘A’ at Leicester, where the Indians felt at home amidst the large Asian community, was, on paper, more confidence deflating than morale boosting.
Thus, as the tourists cruised back on their luxury coach along the M1 motorway to London for the crucial final Test at the Kennington Oval starting Thursday, they need to brush aside the blip and draw inspiration from their success in the second Test.
Unless you’re a Geoffrey Boycott, you are likely to rest on your oars in an engagement you would rather do without. At the same time, a quality batsman should be able to compile runs at will against less than full international opposition.
Therefore, the fact that V.V.S. Laxman, Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni failed in both innings of the fixture was slightly disappointing.
In contrast, skipper Rahul Dravid, who could have benefited from a rest, but who was compelled to play because Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly preferred to take time off, utilised the opportunity to pack in some batting practice in the first innings.
He’s been uncharacteristically short of runs in the first two Tests. Thus the hit would have done him no harm.
It was also gratifying to see Wasim Jaffer not waste a chance to spend more time in the middle. But ironically, the most prolific Indian batsman in the game, Gautam Gambhir, may have performed in vain.
Similarly, Ranadeb Bose’s showing will possibly remain pencilled in only for the future. His five wickets in Sri Lanka A’s first innings reflected a decent post-lunch spell, rather than with the new ball.
Nevertheless, the fact that he dismissed batsmen caught behind and in the slips indicated a promising outswing line.
The Indian star of the match, if there was one, was Ramesh Powar. His flighted off-breaks continue to flummox batsmen and have the potential to bewilder the best of English batsmen, who are unaccustomed to such a loop.
He was slightly expensive in the first innings, but very restrictive indeed in the second.
His six wickets in the match certainly thrust him to the edge of a place in the Oval Test, except that it’s hard to visualise that the tour selectors will replace Anil Kumble, who, incidentally, again bowled unimpressively.
Indeed, barring injuries, India is likely to retain the winning combination of the Trent Bridge Test.
This means, his controversial display notwithstanding, S. Sreesanth will probably not be ignored. Funnily, while his attitude is indefensible, he has with his aggression created a concern among the English batsmen, which could work in India’s favour.
India, though, has a worrying record in recent years of not consolidating a series advantage.
In 2002 in the West Indies, India led 1-0 but thereafter lost 2-1. Then, in Australia and at home against Pakistan, India permitted their opponents to draw level at 1-1.
Last but not the least, seven months ago, the Indians forged ahead at Johannesburg only to succumb at Durban and Cape Town.
England has not lost a Test series at home since 2001 and their victories include that against Australia in 2005.
Andrew Flintoff, Mathew Hoggard and Steve Harmison may be absent, but Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson and Chris Tremlett have bowled well enough in the first two Tests to again pose a threat in the final encounter, if pace and bounce is the order of the day.
Kumble turned out for Surrey, governors of The Oval, last year and Harbhajan Singh is wearing their colours this season. In other words, the square here has a tendency to assist spinners and this county mostly include two slow bowlers in their XI.
A dry, hot spell from here onwards could bring Powar into the frame. But this is a decision that will have to wait until Thursday morning.