After the flurry of limited overs matches it is the hardly surprising that there is not much interest in the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka. The weather also hasn’t helped and if Sri Lanka had beaten India in the one-day series played earlier, then at least this Test series could have sparked some interest as an opportunity for the Indian team to turn the tables. There are only two points of interest here for the Indians fans. One is whether Saurav Ganguly, the former captain will be picked to play and whether Tendulkar will get his 35th century. The heavy rains have put paid to that at least on the first day and more than anything else the media will be disappointed for even if one ball had been bowled, then they would have known if Ganguly was in or out and that would have been enough fodder for a couple of pages or so.

There’s no doubt that for someone who, as captain of India, has won the maximum matches as well as having led his country more times than anyone before, the southpaw is the most reviled of all the Indian captains. Yes, we have all copped it before and that too from people who do not even lead in their house, leave aside the workplace and so know little about leadership, but that’s one of the hazards of the job. The team management would have, by now, told him if he is playing or not, though of course, that’s not been announced to the media. With Rahul Dravid winning impressively as captain in the one-day series, the honeymoon is still on and so when he said that he knows who is playing but for tactical reasons cannot divulge it publicly, it is accepted as a good enough reason. But why this unholy anxiety to know the final eleven on the eve of every match, is something beyond comprehension. As Dravid rightly put it, by revealing the eleven, the team does expose a fair bit of its game plan. For example if it has two seamers and two spinners, then the opposition can actually pick their team accordingly to offset the attack. In case there is an off-spinner playing, then maybe the other team may not include too many left-handers, who can be vulnerable to the ball turning away from them. Also the composition of the eleven, especially of the home team, if known before the toss can give an indication to the opposition of the kind of pitch that may be on offer and thus allow them to make adjustments to their team and their tactics. Sure, most times the eleven is pretty much known to everybody but it does help captains to try and play some cards close to their chest, if they don’t reveal their final playing line-up.Now that the game has been reduced to four days, that is, if it stops raining and the game is played at all, then the selectors of both sides might want to have a rethink about the composition of their elevens. How much the covers are going to sweat or will the water from the outfield also affect the pitch, can only be seen once the covers are removed. If the pitch is affected then it might make sense to bolster the batting because of the uncertainty of how it will play.

It is really unfortunate that Madras cricket lovers have to go through the disappointment of not being able to see their favorite cricketers twice within a span of a fortnight and so lets pray that the weather improves and a crowd, which loves cricket is able to see a game take place even if it’s a shortened one.