Sri Lanka have little chance of winning even one Test match against India in the upcoming three-match series that begins on Thursday in Kolkata. This is the opinion of world’s most successful spinner Muthiah Muralitharan. Sri Lanka have played 17 Tests in India but have not won a single game so far.
“Our chances of winning a Test match in India, I would say, are slim. All teams have struggled to compete in India. In the last 13 years, only two teams have won a series in India. They are ranked number one in the world at the moment, our Test cricket seems to be doing okay, but we are struggling in shorter formats of the game. This will be a tough series and the characters of our boys will be tested,” Muralitharan said.
Muralitharan said that when he toured India during his playing days in 1994 to 2009, he had to face world’s best batting line-up. He also failed to win a single Test with his team on four tours.
“When I played against India, they had the world’s best batting line-up. Their batting was stronger than now I would say. If you take that batting line-up, they had (Virender) Sehwag, (Gautam) Gambhir, (Rahul) Dravid, (Sachin) Tendulkar, (Sourav) Ganguly, (VVS) Laxman and (MS) Dhoni batting from one to seven. Some of them are all-time greats of the sport and it was a tough task for us,” Muralitharan recalled.
“Similarly, we too were quite strong at home. Despite such a good side, India failed to win a series in Sri Lanka for some 22 years. We have some happy memories having made things tougher for them. It has been a superb rivalry and some closely contested games. That’s what the sport wants. There were some series where all games were drawn. In 1997, we played five Tests, two at home and three away and all games were drawn. Both teams had some quality batsmen. – Indian Express
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