“Thilan Kandamby played really well last night,” Venkatesh Prasad said as he settled down for breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning. “He played the under-19 World Cup, and looks good.”

As bowling coach of Team India, Prasad has taken them to new heights over the last year, changing strategies from time to time and bringing in new training accessories. The Indian fast-bowling department — Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan — hadn’t really been put under pressure in the recent past against different batting orders, but the bowlers came under a test on Saturday against Sri Lanka. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has now won seven matches in a row but he is quick to admit that the second ODI was a close shave.

“I felt that the bowlers were a bit confused about the plan at the death. It’s very important to have a clear mind,” said Dhoni.

Even having a bad plan was better than no plan, he added. “It’s better to have a plan — maybe a bad plan — than to be confused. If you are bowling a bouncer, you don’t need a long-on and a long-off. If you are bowling a slower one, you don’t really need a third man, you can have a deep mid-wicket. At the same time, you can confuse the batsmen and slip in a yorker. But if the ball is completely different than the field, you have a greater risk of giving away a boundary.”

... contd.