India lose Gambhir, Harbhajan doubtful for final Test

COLOMBO: India’s hopes of scoring a series-levelling win in the final Test that starts today against Sri Lanka sank as Gautam Gambhir was ruled out and with Harbhajan Singh unlikely to play.

Opener Gambhir has not recovered from a knee injury that kept him out of the drawn second Test, while bowling spearhead Harbhajan was down with a side strain and calf injury.

“Gautam is out of the match and Harbhajan is also very doubtful,” said Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni after the team’s pre-match training session at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo.

Murali Vijay, who came in for Gambhir for the second Test and scored 58 during a first-wicket stand of 165 with Virender Sehwag, will once again open the batting.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra is expected to replace off-spinner Harbhajan, who has managed just two wickets in the first two Tests at an unflattering average of 152.

Harbhajan’s 357 career wickets make him the world’s leading Test bowler following the retirement of Sri Lankan off-sinner Muttiah Muralitharan after the first Test in Galle, which Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets.

Dhoni declined to reveal who would bat at number six after Suresh Raina, a last-minute inclusion in place of the indisposed Yuvraj Singh in the second Test, hammered 120 on his debut.

“We will announce the team before the toss,” said the Indian captain, but ruled out dropping opener Vijay to play both Raina and the fit-again Yuvraj.

“Neither Yuvraj or Raina have opened, so it will be unjustified to place them there,” said Dhoni. “We will go in with two specialist openers.”

Sri Lanka, whose new-look attack in the second Test was hammered for 707 runs by the Indians, will be bolstered by the return of sling-arm fast bowler Lasith Malinga from a knee injury.

Malinga and Muralitharan claimed 15 of the 20 scalps during the emphatic win in Galle, before the off-spinner bowed out of Test cricket with an unprecedented haul of 800 wickets.

“Malinga is back and strong and he had a good bowl at the nets,” said Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara.

Of the 14 Tests played at this ground, 10 have produced results with the hosts winning seven, including the last five in a row as Sri Lanka hope to clinch the series against the top-ranked India, who have not won a Test rubber in the island nation since 1993.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2010.