Mystery Spinner Ajantha Mendis

It won’t be surprising if Sri Lanka call Mendis up for one last tango with Muttiah Muralitharan © AFP

Ajantha Mendis will be a factor in this series. It could be the Kookaburra, it could be the pitches, it could be something in the Sri Lankan air, but after his 6 for 67 against India’s Test line-up, he just can’t be ignored. In fact it won’t be surprising if Sri Lanka call him up for one last tango with Muttiah Muralitharan, for old times’ sake. Old times, which admittedly lasted only three Tests after which Mendis seemed to be sorted out.

Against his favoured opponents, though, which happens to arguably be the best middle-order of our times, Mendis – out of the squad for the first Test in Galle, Murali’s last – did enough to cast doubts in selectors’ minds if they were ever thinking about going the whole series without him. The main chunk of work, as it usually is with Mendis, was swift.

Mendis came on to bowl after Chanaka Welegedara had given the Board President’s XI two breakthroughs, but he was now bowling to perhaps the two best players of spin in India: Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir. The first ball he bowled was clipped away for one by Gambhir. Tendulkar stretched forward and defended the second – play him like a seamer, remember? The third ball was the carrom ball, the pitch offered him turn, and the umpire seemed to have assisted on the lbw even as it seemed to be missing off. But the signs were there, he had at least beaten Tendulkar’s bat, and squared him up, something he seemed incapable of doing when he played his solitary Test in India.

He troubled VVS Laxman for a longer period. The turning pitch made the carrom ball effective, Laxman was seen jabbing at legbreaks away from his body, and soon the edge came. Two quick wickets in 16 deliveries, and even though this is a tour match, memories of 2008 came back. There was soon a big shout for caught-behind against Yuvraj Singh, but the umpire said he had merely beaten the batsman. As soon as Gambhir and Yuvraj started to counterattack, Thilan Samaraweera took Mendis off. Two sharp strikes had been made, and it appeared they didn’t want to expose too much of Mendis.

“By and large, it’s a question of when to use him,” said Ranjit Fernando, a national selector, a day before the start of the game. “You don’t want to overexpose him. A precious commodity like him has to be handled as best as we can. We may probably not be 100% while handling him, we may make mistakes, but the intention is to use him in an optimum manner.”

When Samaraweera was asked whether what they saw in Mendis’ six overs was enough to impress them, and they later took him off to not show too much of him to the opposition, he just laughed in a manner not ruling out that that indeed was the thinking.

Fernando also said there was no way Mendis was out of their plans. “He might be devastating on a wicket that has bounce,” Fernando said. “That’s one of the problems he has had recently. Pitches in Sri Lanka have lacked bounce. Murali, by wearing batsmen down, has picked up wickets. But someone other than him doesn’t have the patience. At the same time, it will be foolish to write him off. If you say that people have found a way to play him, he will be the first person to make you look like an idiot.”

Later, when Mendis was brought back in the final session, the partnership between Gambhir and Yuvraj was flourishing. The feeling that Mendis needed to be dominated played a role in Gambhir’s dismissal, when he mis-hit an attempted straight loft. With the tail – and it was a long one with Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan out – Mendis was swift, taking out Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha out cheaply. The wickets might have come easily, but the importance of a man who can run through the tail cannot be overstated.

Still, Mendis didn’t bowl as well as figures of 6 for 67 suggest. The accuracy of 2008, the habit of staying at it throughout the spells, isn’t quite fully back. There were a fair few long hops bowled, and he was lucky Yuvraj didn’t hit most of them because they were bowled out of his reach down the leg side.

This is also just a tour game. The pressures of playing a Test are different, the mindset of the same batsmen will be different. He might not have the luxury of coming in to bowl at 67 for 2, he might not have 500-plus on the board. There are many factors to suggest this performance won’t necessarily translate into success in Tests, but surely Mendis has earned the right to have a go at it.

Ajantha Mendis will have to prove to the selectors that he’s the man to fill the void left by Murali © AFP

Colts Cricket Club Ground is an idyllic, old-fashioned cricket ground, surrounded by trees, in Havelock Town in Colombo 5. A late replacement for the Nondescripts Cricket Club, the Colts Ground was slated to host what is usually a quaint tour game to kick off India’s tour, but the game has now become almost a Test trial for both sides.

India have run into fitness issues, with Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth injured and Harbhajan Singh down with fever. Sri Lanka have chosen a strong Board President’s XI side, with six members from the Test squad looking to impress the team management. Ajantha Mendis, not in the squad for the first Test, has been given an opportunity too.

The Indian XI is now wide open. If Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and M Vijay get picked for the tour game, a really impressive show from any one of them against an attack featuring Dilhara Fernando, Chanaka Welegedara and Mendis could seal him the No. 6 spot for the Galle Test.

More interesting and desperate is the bowling department. With Zaheer and Sreesanth now out, Abhimanyu Mithun will be backing himself for the Test pace attack along with Ishant Sharma. Mithun, though, will look for a solid performance against the likes of Thilan Samaraweera, Upul Tharanga and Lahiru Thirimanne to make sure that Sreesanth’s replacement, to be named some time on Monday, doesn’t overtake him in the preference for the Test slot.

Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha have for long been taking turns to assist Harbhajan in the spin department, but neither of them has impressed the selectors enough to become a definite starter. With Harbhajan still recovering from the fever and yet to attend a training session, both of them are likely to get a chance to stake claims for the Test spot.

Sri Lanka, too, have an uncertain bowling line-up, especially the pace department. While Muttiah Muralitharan is a definite starter, Galle being his last Test, either of Rangana Herath or Suraj Randiv will form the spin duo. Among the fast bowlers, though, any two of Lasith Malinga, Dammika Prasad, Fernando and Welegedara can be picked in the XI.

Two of them, Fernando and Welegedara, will get a chance in Colombo to send notice to the captain and the coach. That two of them have been asked to show their form in the tour game could suggest that Malinga and Prasad have a lead over them, but a five-for against a near-Test side never hurt anybody.

Most interesting, though, will be how Mendis bowls. He will be up against the same batting line-up that he tortured two years ago; the same batsmen have been torturing him since. He knows there will be a vacancy with Murali retiring after the first Test. He also knows he needs to convince them that he is the man to fill it. Mendis will be bowling to get his Test career back on track, to the same set of blokes he launched it against in the first place.

Lasith Malinga is set to play his first Test since December 2007 © AFP

Fast bowler Lasith Malinga has been named in the 16-member Sri Lanka squad for the three-Test series against India beginning on July 18, setting him up for a return to Tests after two-and-a-half years . However, there was no place for spinner Ajantha Mendis, who tormented India during their previous Test visit two years ago.

Malinga played his last Test against England at Galle in 2007 before a knee injury laid him low and forced him out of cricket for nine months. Malinga was cured by Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse’s personal physician Dr Eliyantha White and since then his appearances for his country has been only in limited-over internationals and in Twenty20 Internationals.

Malinga’s return to Test cricket was slow because the team physio did not want to push him too early to play in the longer version of the game. However selection committee sources stated that they had got the greenlight from physio Tommy Simsek who has been monitoring Malinga’s progress carefully that he was now fully fit to play in a five-day Test match.

“Malinga has nine more days before the first Test against India and we are confident he will be fit to play. He has been bowling long spells at the nets and has shown no side effects,” a selection committee source said. Since making his Test debut against Australia at Darwin in 2004, Malinga has played in 28 Tests and captured 91 wickets.The other members of the fast-bowling department are Dilhara Fernando, Chanaka Welegedara and Dammika Prasad.

Offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan who is due to retire at the end of Galle Test has also been named in the squad along with left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and young off-spinner Suraj Randiv who is likely to take Muralitharan’s place for the rest of the series. Mendis, who became a star with 26 wickets in three Tests against India when they visited in 2008, was left out.

The Sri Lanka Board President’s team to take on India in a three-day practice match ahead of the Tests was also named. Thilan Samaraweera will lead the side which includes first-choice Test keeper Prasanna Jayawardene and promising batsmen Lahiru Thirimanne, Ashan Priyanjan and Dinesh Chandimal.

Test squad: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan (vc), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath, Dilhara Fernando, Dammika Prasad, Suraj Randiv, Thilina Kandamby, Chanaka Welegedara, Lahiru Thirimanne.

Sri Lanka Board President’s XI: Thilan Samaraweera (capt), Upul Tharanga, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thilina Kandamby, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Ashan Priyanjana, Kaushal Silva, Chanaka Welegedara, Dilhara Fernando, Chaminda Vidanapathirana, Sachitra Senanayake, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Pradeep, Kusal Janith, Dinesh Chandimal