KANPUR: There has been talks of Muttiah Muralitharan’s waning wizardy, and his bungling figures in India.
True that he was wicketless in the second innings and averages more than 30 plus per wicket in India.
But Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara asserterted that Murali is still a match winner of the highest order.
“When you have world’s leading wicket-taker in your side, you got to depend on him. 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. But if one player fails to deliver, others have to chip in. We believe in all our players and think they are good enough. We often look forward to the part-timers like Dilshan chipping in with wickets.
At the end of the day, it has to be a team effort,” he specified.
Though Tilakaratne Dilshan ihas recovered from his broken nose, Dammika Prasad, restrained by a hamstring strain, is unlikely to figure in the contest. But the side’s balance is such that Sangakkara has a handful of options.
“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. Dilhara Fernando has been around for some while that he doesn’t take any time to adjust to the dressing room. We have quite a few combinations on mind and we would decide on it later,” he stated.
Though he effusively praised stumper Prasanna Jaywardene, he rued the spilt opportunity that was the Ahmedabad Test. “But we expect the team to carry forward positives from the match. But there is no psychological edge for us. It is even-stevens now and we have to start from scratch. We are a little disappointed, but ultimately it was the wicket. It was not what we expected. Even so, we had them at 32 for four and then we gave it away. We were always positive in our thinking but we can only learn from our mistakes, carry the positives and move on. We can’t relax, we’ve got to keep challenging ourselves,” he emphasised.
However, he didn’t blame the Motera strip for the stalemate.
“The track was quite placid but we have to back ourselves to do well on all kind of surfaces. You have to keep trying. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But if you keep trying, chances of happenings are high. The track here seems to have more grass on it but it’s quite dry underneath.
Unless you play, you don’t know,” he observed.