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Lanka place their bet on Murali
Alone, in front of an empty stadium, after his teammates had trudged back to the dressing room following a net session in the morning, Muttiah Muralitharan sharpened his skills. Deepti Patwardhan reports.
Alone, in front of an empty stadium, after his teammates had trudged back to the dressing room following a net session in the morning, Muttiah Muralitharan sharpened his skills.
But the magic has somehow eluded the master spinner during his stay in India.
Having pocketed wicket after wicket through his 17 years in Test cricket (his tally now stands at 788), Muralitharan is now struggling to keep up with his extraordinary wicket rate. In the two Tests in this series, the off-spinner has claimed only five wickets.
The tracks in the first two Tests haven’t been the most helpful, but India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni believes it is also a case of familiarity breeding contempt.
“In the last four-five years, the two countries have toured each other regularly,” said Dhoni. “Our batsmen have been playing him for a long time. The more we have seen of Murali, accordingly we have been able to plan our innings. But he is still a very good bowler.”
Just before the start of the third Test, Muralitharan, 37, had hinted at retirement.
He has been plagued with inconsistent form this year, taking 32 wickets in eight Tests. But 13 of those wickets have come against Bangladesh and another 13 against New Zealand in Sri Lanka. Against India and Pakistan, supposedly the best players of spin, Murali has claimed five and a wicket in two matches each respectively.
“I don’t think Murali is going anywhere,” said Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara. “We’ve been hearing for the past two years that he is going to retire. He still has a lot left in him and he realises that.
That the Indian batsmen have played him a lot does help, but on a match day he still enjoys the challenge of trying to better the batsman. He hasn’t had the best of outings here, but that’s the way cricket goes. He still has that quality and ability and we are backing him 100 per cent to turn the Test match for us.”
