With the series tied 1-1, India drove back to Colombo on Thursday with a clean slate, but several questions in their head. With Gautam Gambhir fit again, the team management can’t exactly stick to the old cricketing adage of ‘not tampering with the winning combination’. And that situation means the three days in hand will not be spent just acclimatising to the lights at R Premadasa Stadium, but also taking some tough decisions as far as team selection goes.

Maybe there was a clue for the decision-makers from the nets at Dambulla, where UP players Praveen Kumar and RP Singh were involved in light banter. Praveen pointed his bat towards RP and said, “1300 gram ka hai, aur bada mota blade hai isska. Maarne mein mazaa aata hai.” (It’s 1,300 grams with a broad blade. It’s a great feeling to hit with it).

The man with the heaviest bat in the team followed that up with a few shots that would’ve done a professional golfer proud.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s lack of confidence in Praveen’s batting has meant the all-rounder hasn’t got enough opportunities to hit those strokes on the field. And it has also meant that Irfan Pathan has no challenger for his place in the XI. Strangely, Praveen batted at No.10 in the last game, slotted just above Munaf Patel, with both Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan pushed up the order.

Gambhir dilemma

Skipper Dhoni’s big problem will now be to adjust Gambhir in the line-up without disturbing Pathan. In the second one-dayer, the team opted to play safe and went with seven batsmen. And, since India needed their entire batting resources to chase the modest target of 143, any downsizing in that department might not be a good idea.

... contd.