India fields full-strength side for practice game

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The first Test of India’s tour to Sri Lanka begins on Tuesday but currently India is fielding a full-strength side for its warm-up game against Sri Lanka Board XI. The Indian cricket team is back to playing the longest version of the game after getting accustomed to the Twenty20 and one-day international (ODI) formats.

This will see the return of the big four – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman who were last seen in action at the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL).

It will also see the return of bowlers Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh who also last played at the inaugural edition of the IPL in April/May this year.

All the aforementioned cricketers haven’t played since May and so the decision to field a full-strength side going into a warm-up game will mean that Kumble will want his boys to get as much match practice as they can before going into the first of three Test matches to be played in Sri Lanka.

Dinesh Kartik is playing as the replacement wicketkeeper in the Indian squad in place of Mahendra Singh Dhoni who opted out of the series. Parthiv Patel is the other keeper who is with the Indian squad in Sri Lanka.

Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag who have had a successful ODI and T20 run as openers for their national and IPL teams will join forces again, this time in the Test arena, hoping to make good the role of Indian Test openers – a spot which has been a concern for India over the last few years.

Sachin Tendulkar is currently 171 runs behind Brian Lara’s world record aggregate of 11,953 Test runs and the Master Blaster will be hoping to add another world record to his already impressive tally.

Unlike India, Sri Lanka is not fielding its full-strength side and will use this match as a chance for some of the players to get back to fitness and maintain their place in the side before the first Test. India has not won a Test in Sri Lanka for 15 years and this will be a chance for a fit Indian unit to make amends.

The first Test of India’s tour to Sri Lanka gets underway at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground at Colombo on June 23.