Lankan attack mediocre without Murali

As I write this, India is on the verge of losing the first Test at Lord's and losing it comprehensively unless some miracle happens or rain washes out play on the last day.

It has, so far been, a miserable Test for India, the highlight of this misery being the failure of Sachin Tendulkar in both the innings.

The "little champion," as Sunil Gavaskar calls him, was psyched out by Nasser Hussain. He saved Simon Jones the much hyped Welshman as England's answer to Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee as Sachin came out to bat. Jones is quick but he represents raw pace and hasn't got his compass fine-tuned. But he seemed to unsettle Tendulkar who took a knock on his elbow.

The Indian innings was never allowed to get started on the morning of the third day. Hussain got his bowler to go ground the wicket and to aim for the rib-cage. It was good, aggressive captaincy. Even though the track was flat and described as "a belter," the Indians chose not to counter-attack. Only Rahul Dravid and Vangipurappu Laxman seemed equal to the task and Dravid was out to a ball that jumped at him and Laxman ran out of partners.

India had started badly when it chose to leave out Harbhajan Singh, going by the conventional wisdom that in England, one should play three seamers. With the exception of Zaheer Khan, the other two seamers neither had the pace nor were they able to move the ball, in the air or off the seam and England was able to amass 487 without too much sweat.

Virender Sehwag, opening the innings for India played a breezy innings and a most attractive one but India needed serious runs and this meant Tendulkar coming off. He certainly looked off-colour and he scratched around and should have been caught by Graham Thorpe at slip off Jones. But he was out to a shot that he would not have played in the nets and in the second innings he was bowled by an inswinging yorker with plenty of daylight between bat and pad.

It was a peach of a delivery and would have bowled most batsmen but not a batsman of Tendulkar's class. Is Tendulkar showing that he is human, after all, and like all batsmen, great and small, he's going through a lean patch?

Jones is an exciting prospect for England. Hussain has used him as a shock bowler, in short bursts. I think he will be a handful on bouncier wickets provided he can get his line and length right, and, provided too, he has the stamina. He showed that he was no mug with the bat and played a cameo innings with some clean hitting.

The irony is that he would not have played had Darren Gough or Andy Caddick or Alex Tudor been fit and the England selectors are not known for having an eye on the future. On England's tour of Australia, later this year, he would be my first choice and yet he may not make the team!

It was bad enough that that triangular that Pakistan was to host was shifted to Nairobi but we seem to have run into some in-fighting between the Kenyan Cricket Association and its Sports Ministry. The President of Kenya has had to intervene. Sri Lanka too appears to having some problems on the administrative front and the decision to 'rest' nine of their senior players for the second Test against Bangladesh was a strange one. Apart from being a little insulting to the visitors, Sri Lanka had been mauled on its tour of England and would have been a team short of confidence. The best way to regain confidence is to start winning.

A Test match is cricket at the highest level and is not an occasion to blood new players wholesale. Muttiah Muralitharan who has recovered from a shoulder injury showed that he was match-fit when he destroyed Bangladesh in the first match. He should have played in the second Test and is clearly unhappy that he did not. So too is the captain, Sanath Jayasuriya.

Sri Lanka will need to get its act together for the triangular in Tangiers for it will be pitted against Pakistan and South Africa. At present, it gives the impression of a house divided against itself. And if I was a Sri Lankan sports official, I would see to it that Muralitharan is kept happy. He is half the team and without him, the bowling is less than mediocre.

Pakistan will not have Shoaib Akhtar for Tangiers. He has chosen to 'rest' in England. I have no quarrel with that. But we were getting confused signals, as if to suggest, that he had just trotted off without permission. That is not, of course, the case. But Shoaib has got the reputation of being a loose cannon, somewhat. But I don't think he would let Pakistan down when the team needs him.

Pakistan has developed into a fine, fighting unit. It has got to stay that way. Pakistan will be playing Australia in Nairobi and then playing in the ICC Trophy in Sri Lanka. These games will be a rehearsal for the World Cup next year. The players and the team management should be on the same wave length. Happily, they are and everyone concerned should ensure that it stays that way.