Those who love to watch Muralitharan in action. This is the match you have to see finally – Yes he is retiring from the world test cricket after this match and the interesting news is that he has just 8 wickets short to reach 800 Mark. We wish him to reach the success in this match. Watch Live Cricket Streaming India vs Sri Lanka 1st test from Galle on 18 Jul 2010. The newly married captain is playing this match with the team has less bowling potential.
Shewag and Sachin is back to the team which gives boost to the batting line-up. Beyond Muralitharan, there is a Test match to be won or lost. Unless Harbhajan Singh is inspired by Murali’s farewell, it’s difficult to see India take 20 wickets. Sri Lanka are the favourites to win this – it’s their game to lose. Forget what the curator has said, the pitch will take turn.
India (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 MS Dhoni (capt and wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Pragyan Ojha, 11 Abhimanyu Mithun/Munaf Patel
Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Tharanga Paranavitana, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Dammika Prasad/ Chanaka Welegedara
Stats and trivia
* Chanaka Welegedara has dismissed Rahul Dravid thrice in two Test matches. He took Dravid’s wicket in the warm-up game that preceded this Test as well.
* Ishant Sharma averages 43.50 against Sri Lanka as opposed to his career bowling average of 34.93. His record, though, improves slightly if you just take his performances in Sri Lanka; he has picked six wickets at 35.50. Only a brave man would punt on him to improve his record in this series.
* Muralitharan has taken 97 Indian wickets; 57 of those have come in Sri Lanka at an awesome average of 24.84. He has dismissed Sachin Tendulkar 7 times and Rahul Dravid 6 times in Test matches.
