Different story this time

Gautam Gambhir, who played Mendis well in the last series even though some of his colleagues were in a spot of bother, is confident that this time it will be a different story. “We didn’t know what was coming out of his hand, and how much variations he had. But when you play constantly against the same bowler, tackling him becomes easier. This time, we will start on an even platform against him,” Gambhir told The Indian Express on Tuesday.

After their disastrous collapse against Mendis in the Asia Cup final last year, India have both defended and attacked him, with varying degrees of success. And while the answers are still being decoded, attacking him seems to be the more popular choice within the members of the team because of their array of aggressive batsmen in Virender Sehwag, Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan.

Out of this lot, Yuvraj was most uncertain against Mendis in the last series, though skipper Dhoni too was frequently dismissed by the Sri Lankan. “One-day cricket is about attacking the bowler. If you look at the last one-day series, we tried to remain positive and it worked for us. In ODIs, the bowlers anyway tends to bowl a little defensively so it’s all the more important to play your strokes,” Gambhir said.