Trees in a forest

The hype before the India-Sri Lanka Test series was the potential battle between Ajantha Mendis and the "Big Four". I believe that, as the series progresses, Ajantha's threat will diminish once these batsmen get used to his bag of tricks. So it was with great interest I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to watch Mendis bowl.

Before that transpired I got to see India's spinners - Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble - toil away on a seemingly innocuous pitch. We have all known that Kumble is not a big turner of the ball and he unfurled his bag of tricks but on a pitch where the ball was not bouncing too high, he was negated for the most part. The interesting aspect was watching Harbhajan bowl.

In his autobiography, John Wright talks about the fizz and bounce in Harbhajan's bowling when he first saw him. I don't see that any more. Instead I see a guy content to fire the ball in as fast as he can, afraid of giving up runs in the quest for wickets, and overly reliant on the doosra. His career graph is beginning to resemble that of Saqlain Mushtaq, another spinner who started with a bang, developed the doosra, became the first-choice spinner in ODI's, lost his loop and whose over-reliance on the doosra had Sehwag licking his chops at Multan.

However, the extent of Harbhajan's decline did not become evident to me until I saw Muralitharan at work on the very-same pitch. Ah! So that's how a bowler uses the doosra. It helps that Murali has an abnormal wrist that enables him to twirl that ball even more viciously but what was more revealing was his preferred line of attack. He bowled round the wicket to the right-handers and over the wicket to the left-handers, snaring both lefties in the process. His command over angles is incredible and even if a batsmen gets boundaries (Tendulkar, Ganguly, and Laxman had their share) it does not seem to impact the next ball. Harbhajan would do well to lock himself up in a room and watch Murali bowl all day. While the Indians (and the gushing, breathless commentators) were focussing on Mendis, Murali delivered a masterclass as if to remind people that he had a 735 wicket headstart on Mendis and everyone should remember that.

Mendis was impressive and troubled all the batsmen. But his command was not complete. Of the lot, Tendulkar played him very well, except for one leading edge. Before we wax poetic about that ball, do remember that every batsman struggles against every bowler for a ball or two no matter how benign the conditions. Tendulkar was very, very impressive. Aggressive in both defence and offence, he was playing very serenely, with a very impassive countenance, when he read the doosra from Murali but did not withdraw his bat quickly enough. The ball hit the bottom of the rising bat and was dragged onto the stumps. He looked in ominous touch and, if recent history is any indication, the runs will flow.

However, I am worried about Dravid and, to a lesser extent, Ganguly. Ganguly was reprieved by the third umpire on a challenged review - the call was 50-50 so the benefit went to him, and on another occasion was totally plumb LBW but the ball then deflected off his bat and the Sri Lankans did not even register an appeal. On both occasions, Mendis was the bowler. However, the worrisome part was the shocking way in which Dravid chose to play Mendis. Preferring to read him off the pitch, Dravid played Mendis exclusively on the backfoot and paid the price when his angled bat missed the ball to gift Mendis a very memorable and well-deserved maiden Test wicket.

Of the "Big Four" I anticipate that Dravid will be the first to hang up his boots. In the last three series since he relinqished captaincy, his batting has looked haunted and there is no rhythm or flow to it. He is a hollow shell of the guy who almost single-handedly ruined Steve Waugh's farewell series. The footwork is forced and he seems to be batting more from memory than anything else. Hopefully, this is just a slump and he will be back to his best very soon.

Finally, a word on Virender Sehwag. I love the guy's batting, and his attitude. The only Indian batsman who plays the ball on its merit got out because he did not play one that way. The ball was a bouncer, with a deep square-leg for the mistimed hook, but it was about a couple of feet outside the off-stump. It cried to either to be left alone or upper-cut to third man. He chose the wrong option and perished on a top-edged hook bringing a soft end to a thundering cameo.

The match is interestingly poised with only two possible results - a Sri Lanka win or a draw. Two days to go, with an extra half-hour each day, for India to survive. South Africa did this successfully in the recent Lord's Test match. But they did not have to contend with a magician and his apprentice.

Interesting times are ahead and sleepless nights beckon.