SWISLAW standings #1

One of the most exciting things about every series is being able to identify and keep track of the probable 'Shane Watsons' in it. In this post we're going to take a first look at who the front-runners for the 'Shane Watson of the India v Sri Lanka Award' (SWISLAW) are. Let's meet them.

The SWISLAW leaderboard as at 06 August, 2008: Ajantha Mendis: 790/90000_FMs(0.0087)/2 Tests Muralitharan: 856/100000_FMs(0.0085)/2 Tests Harbhajan Singh: 681/90000_FMs(0.0075)/2 Tests Sehwag: 484/95000_FMs (0.0051)/2 Tests Malinda Warnapura: 251/85000_FMs (0.0029)/2 Tests Gautam Gambhir: 249/90000_FMs (0.0028)/2 Tests Mahela Jayawardene: 284/95000_FMs (0.0029)/2 Tests

Clearly, it's been a series in which the spinners have done exceedingly well. (Save for the fading Kumble.) And despite Ajantha possessing the advantage of being a complete unknown the batsmen are still coming to terms with, it says a lot for the the 'old fox' Murali's skills that he's just a shade behind Mendis in the race for the most prestigious, and mostly unknown, SWISLAW.

Coming to the batsmen who have managed to make an impression, Sehwag is streets ahead of the rest. (Quite an achievement considering the Sri Lankans are the masters of batting at home.) That the quartet of Sachin, Sourav, Dravid and Laxman haven't done much in this series - apart from raise many a concerned eyebrow - is a sure sign that, given a spinning wicket, even the likes of Dravid, Sachin, Sourav and Laxman (all supposed pros at playing slow bowling) aren't that great at coping.

After bemoaning the lack of openers who can tackle the new ball and set up a foundation for the batsmen to follow, given great starts in this series the four titans of the Indian batting line-up haven't been able to capitalise. Maybe it's time they took a long, hard look at themselves and considered opening the batting in the next Test. It might be the only way they'll get a substantial score against their name before the likes of Mendis and Murali come to bowl.