Rough landing for India

The first match of India's tour of Sri Lanka against the Board XI has not gone well for the visitors. And they can't even blame jet lag. Sri Lanka is not that far away from India.

In fact, the lusciously Caribbeanesque South Asian island of Sri Lanka is just a hop, skip and short flight away from one of India's most important cities, Chennai. (Not China.) But when it comes to conditions, it's a world apart. Which perhaps explains why it tends to take Indian batsmen more than one might expect to get used to. Often, a trip to Sri Lanka has a lot of matches being played on wickets and under conditions that feel remarkably different from those in India, which I still, after all these years of cricket watching, find odd. Because Sri Lanka from the other side of the Palk Straits is just next door. And yet, when it comes to pitches, quite far removed from the kind you find in India.

Put differently, when playing in Bangladesh, you encounter surfaces that are a lot similar to those back home in India. But not in Sri Lanka. To think both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are only a handshake away from India.

A small part of me also sees in Sri Lanka a bit of England, Australia and a lot so of the Caribbean. Which might be the reason you find a lot of English and Australian people owning properties in Sri Lanka and using them as long-stay getaways. Conditions in the Caribbean though, especially in the last 5 to 10 years have turned unusually batsmen friendly. Thankfully not so in Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, you will find seaming wickets, you will find flat wickets, you will find square turners, you will find high altitude wickets and you will find mystery bowlers who will bamboozle you on any wicket. That's why every fantasy team you're thinking about will do well to have put money on Sri Lankan batsmen, Sri Lankan 'freak' bowlers, Indian bowlers and Sachin ... for the first Test. At least, on current form.

In the game against the Board XI, the Indian bowlers have looked good, but in patches. The Indian batsmen, on the other hand, have coped quite poorly. In the past, India normally underperformed most in the opening games. If the second game of the tour happened to be a Test, India almost always struggled to survive it. The Sri Lankan players, after a triumphant Asia Cup campaign look eager, energetic and daunting. The Indians, without Dhoni, look uncertain, wary and unsettled. The first Test is only 3 days away. The signs look ominous for Kumble and India.

Depending on how the Indian batsmen perform in the second innings of the Board XI match, I'll decide whether I should start going loco or not over the composition of The XI Downing Streets. I still have unlimited transfers. Albeit, only for two and a half days longer. Something I should keep a hawk's eye on after my shoddy management of them during the 'still running but personally transferless' England v South Africa series.