Captains Upbeat ahead of Sri Lanka vs India Test Series

Captains on both sides, Mahela Jayawardene and Anil Kumble, have expressed their hope ahead of the three-match test series starting from 23 July. Both captains are hopeful that their teams will play well in the series indicating the strength of their teams.

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene predicts the series is going to be a great one for the cricket fans. He also admits that the series is going to be a tough one. His counterpart Anil Kumble, captain of India’s test team, gives more of his focus on the consistency India showed over the last one year. He is also delighted with the come back of pacer Zaheer Khan and spinner Harbhajan Singh. Kumble is also happy with the team combination and he thinks that his team has a good preparation ahead of the test series.

Indian cricket team includes some of the most experienced batsmen in the world including Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. However, much of the media focus ahead of the test series takes away by Sri Lanka’s latest surprise Ajantha Mendis, who single-handedly demolished Indian batting line up in the final match of Asia Cup 2008 earlier this month. His match winning figure of 6 for 13 was enough to bring result of the match in their favor leading Sri Lanka to their first Asia Cup title outside Sri Lanka.

However, Anil Kumble thinks his middle order batting line up is strong enough to stave off the challenge of the young spinner Ajanta Mendis. He also adds that the condition is pretty much familiar with Indian players and it would not be tough for them to cope up with it. Now, let us see if India can take up the challenge of Ajanta Mendis successfully or Mendis once again roared against Indian batsmen in the test series.

Related article:

Cricinfo