Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara on Monday ruled pacer Dammika Prasad out of the second cricket Test against India and said mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis is very much in his scheme of things for the match.

Prasad, who prised out the scalps of VVS Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the Ahmedabad Test, had strained his hamstring there and Sangakkara said the team was not considering the 26-year-old right-arm pacer even though there was no such apprehension about in-form batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan who broke his nose while playing football.

"Dilshan broke his nose but is perfectly fine now. Dammika strained his hamstring and is recovering well. (But we are) not considering him at this moment," Sangakkara said.

Muttiah Muralitharan shared the spin responsibility with Rangana Herath in Ahmedabad with little success and Sangakkara said chances are that Mendis would break into the playing XI.

"Ajantha is always in the reckoning. With the confidence and balance our team has, we can play three spinners if we want to. Or we can also replace Dammika Prasad with another fast bowler. Or we can also change a spinner. We have quite a few combinations on mind and it would take a concrete shape by the evening," he said.

Sangakkara conceded Muralitharan's below-par show in Ahmedabad was "unusual" but dismissed suggestions that Sri Lanka paid the price for their over-dependence on the wily off-spinner.

"When you have world's leading wicket-taker in your side, you got to depend on him. There cannot be any second question about that. Murali has done it for us for years, like Sanath (Jayasuriya) and (Chaminda) Vaas. But the great thing about our team is that we have great supporting players as well. Murali had Vaas, Herath and Mendis to do that. "And I don't thing Murali struggled in Ahmedabad. He has been a match-winner all the time," Sangakkara asserted.

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