India – Sri Lanka series

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 -- India and Sri Lanka would play five One day Internationals this season, starting from 28th January 2009. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain and Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka skipper, both are of the opinion that this would be close series. The reason is that India defeated Sri Lanka 3-2 in the previous year and recently Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan 2-1.

Dhoni’s opinion

Out of the 5 One dayers played in the previous year, Mahendra Dhoni had won the toss four times. He said that the wickets in Sri Lanka behave in a peculiar way. Especially, in venues like the Premadasa Stadium and Dambulla, it has been the experience of the last 1.5 years that the ball seams around during the evening particularly under the lights. Also, in Dambulla, the ball plays an important role during a day match. Taking into account all of the above, Dhoni feels that the toss would be very crucial in the upcoming series. The Indian side would miss the services of Harbhajan Singh and this would be an opportunity for Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha to display their talent.

Jayawardene’s statement

Jayawardene commented that the upcoming series against India would be both challenging as well as tough. His team would try to continue with the trend they exhibited in Pakistan. He added that his team successfully adapted to the difficult conditions in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. After they were defeated in the first match in Pakistan, they had a discussion during which they found out what was exactly erroneous and this was overcome in the remaining two games.