Dhoni jazzes up jaded batting order
However, the suspense over Sehwag's opening partner for Saturday is still on, reports C Shekhar Luthra.
The Indian batsmen were looking desperately short of match practice. Or who knows? Perhaps they were implementing those arcane plans that India periodically make to keep their opponents in the dark about match preparations!
Whatever the reasons, the consecutive failures of top batsmen here in the practice games must have given Indian coach Greg Chappell a headache before the triangular series opener against hosts Sri Lanka on Saturday.
Only MS Dhoni, promoted on Wednesday to open the innings with Virender Sehwag, presented his case strongly with a knock of 88.
The remaining batsmen were unable to adjust on the slow Lankan pitches and failed for the second consecutive time to bat out 50 overs.
However, the suspense over Sehwag's partner for Saturday is still on. And Dhoni's knock has only added fire to the speculation. Both Dhoni and VVS Laxman, rested for this game along with Harbhajan Singh and Laxmipathy Balaji, are struggling to keep themselves fit for the opener.
India won the toss on Wednesday and chose to have some batting practice against the Kurunegala DCA Invitation XI. Despite the overall poor showing by their top batsmen, India coasted to an easy victory, steamrolling their weak opponents by 93 runs.
Irfan Pathan was the pick of the bowlers, taking three for 20 while Ashish Nehra took two. The others, including Zaheer Khan, JP Yadav and Anil Kumble, went wicketless and it was again left to part-time bowlers Yuvraj and Sehwag to wrap up the young Lankan side with two wickets apiece.
Right from the start, almost all the Indian batsmen showed no inclination to settle down and continued going for their shots. The wickets encountered so far, have looked to be slow and different from the ones that the Indian team was practicing on in Bangalore.
"The wickets here are very slow and different. You have got to wait for the ball and that's perhaps why our batsmen are struggling," said Dhoni.
Yet, Chappell played down the batting problems, saying "we're looking for different combinations in these matches". "I don't want to put any extra burden on any individual player. That was why we rested Laxman. These matches are basically to try out the different combinations that could help us in finalising the team for the series," said Chappell.
Whatever the Indian coach may say, the fact remains that he has so far failed to get the right combination going. Still every player is being tested.
Suresh Raina looked sloppy in his maiden outing, Yadav failed to deliver with both bat and ball. Even Kumble struggled to find the right line on this slow pitch.
Actually, apart from Dhoni, the only member of the team who looked prepared for the series was Chappell himself. Whether his preparations pan out as planned is another matter.
Brief scores
India: 250 in 42.2 overs (MS Dhoni 88, Suresh Raina 29, Yuvraj Singh 20, Virender Sehwag 16, Rahul Dravid 15, Irfan Pathan 13 not out; Dilan Karunaratne 3-47, Udura Varuna 2-28).
Kurunegala DCA Invitation XI: 157 in 36.2 overs (Irfan Pathan 3-20, Ashish Nehra 2-36, Virender Sehwag 2-18, Yuvraj Singh 2-2).