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And now, the plot thickens!
With Sehwag out and Dravid low, everything is a guessing game, writes Pradeep Magazine.
Among the many imponderables a game of cricket can throw up, that too on the eve of a Test match, is the one related to the team composition and the wicket. Worse still, when the news is that the captain of the team you identify with is suffering from fever and one of its main batsmen is still in hospital, the guessing game can become an unsolvable puzzle.
Where to tie the loose ends? How do you construct a preview that pretends to say everything and yet reveals nothing, least of all your ignorance? It is quite a job to appear wise and a know-all, despite all the limitations of a man who may have seen it all but never been part of the real action.
Being part of a huge entourage, first at Palam where the Indian team was practising and later at the Kotla, what struck the onlooker was the unending curiosity of those whose job is to know and convince the world the next morning that they actually know.
Prying cameras and the roving eye, they were all part of a design to find more than the man next to you.
The first bad news for an Indian was that Virender Sehwag is still in hospital and in all probability, out of the Test. As the prying eye detected that Rahul Dravid was missing in the nets, the news came that he was down with the same viral that laid Sehwag low. At least the symptoms were the same -- bad throat and fever.
Nothing alarming, we are told. Maybe true, though the Sri Lankans would be hoping otherwise. But, seeing is believing. And unless Dravid walks out in the morning at the Kotla to toss, speculation will remain, at best, a superfluous attempt to find the truth.
And then the absence of Sehwag. For a team that put a snail to shame in Chennai, despite the nature of the wicket, the marauding blade of the Delhi opener is the tonic the team needed most. And now, the speculation on who will open with Gautam Gambir. Yuvraj Singh for sure will play, but the mind refuses to flirt with risks, especially in the new Greg Chappell era. Going by the example of one-day experiments -- though this is a Test -- who knows who walks in when and where he bats. Why fuss too much?
And if Dravid is not there, who leads? This could be the most difficult one. Though a very detached view would point towards only one man: Anil Kumble. In his 99th Test, Kumble would treasure this honour and so, I guess, would India.
There is more still. The wicket. It is being said that it has a greenish hue, at least around the centre of the track. Well, those who have seen cricket being played here, and those who think they really know, say this wicket is a low-bounced, slow turner, where only those who prefer to live with danger get out. Our advice would be to believe them, though who knows?
Especially if one team has a spin magician by the name of Mutthaih Muralitharan in their side.
But whatever the speculation on the eve of the Test, one thing is sure. This Indian team, unlike the one-day squad, has a craggy, aged look to it. There are many around eyeing the two middle-order spots in the team with envy. VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly, beware. All that matters in the end are runs.
Everything else is, well, mere speculation.
The squads
INDIA (From)
Rahul Dravid (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar and Rudra Pratap Singh.
SRI LANKA (From)
Marvan Atapattu (captain), Kumar Sangakkara, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Tillekaratne Dilshan, Avishka Gunawardene, Malinga Bandara, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Fernando, Weerakoon, Jehan Mubarak, Lasith Malinga.
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