Still clueless in mystery island

It's likely that Abhinav Bindra's heroics will leave little time for cricketing discussions, but events that unfolded in Colombo in the hours following India's first ever individual Olympic gold did raise a lot of questions.

Though the eventual Sri Lankan victory, by a comfortable eight wickets, isn't the kind of result that inspires wishful thinking, but there were a few points that rankled at the end of a Test match that India fought all the way through. Had India scored a few more runs, would Sri Lanka have chased them down in as commanding a manner? Had Ishant Sharma been fit, could the hosts have managed to run away as they did?

Had a few referrals gone India's way, would the result — not just of this Test, but the series as well — have been any different?

But, in the middle of all these questions, there's the likelihood that the most pertinent, and uncomfortable one, might get lost. Has India delayed taking a fresh look at the composition of the Test side and phasing out the seniors?

Time to ring out the old?

Sri Lanka have done it, and the results are there to see. They have resisted the temptation of redrafting the in-form 39-year-old opener Sanath Jayasuriya in the Test side and he hasn't been missed. The sight of opener Malinda Warnapura returning with a stump in one hand along with skipper Mahela Jayawardene showed that the Lankans had passed the uncomfortable transition stage.

The seven-Test old Warnapura, who gave Sri Lanka a flying start in the series by scoring a ton in the first innings of the first Test, was there to give the finishing touch as well with a crucial unbeaten 54 in the fourth innings of the final Test. He handled the pressure like an old pro even as the Indians got a faint sniff of victory at 22 for 2. Despite the constant chatter from close-in fielders and a showdown with Harbhajan Singh, he stood firm in an unbeaten 101-run partnership with Jayawardene.

... contd.

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