Sri Lanka best prepared side for tri-series

Quite inevitably, readers in India would like to know how we are preparing for the shorter versions of the game, particularly in light of the off-field developments.

I cannot comment on the verdict because the ICC does not allow me to, but I have noted that the judge was disappointed at not having all the information regarding Harbhajan Singh’s past record while making his decision.

However, Andrew and I had no desire to see Harbhajan lose his match fee or to see him banned. All we wanted was for justice to be served, and now that that has happened, it’s time to move on.

I would like to also point out that relations between the teams have been cordial and improving constantly over the past month, and right now, everybody in both teams is just focussed on the cricket.

My players know that a lot of what happened was out of our control, so it’s best for us to concentrate on what we are best at, and that is playing cricket.

It was a big relief for me to score an important century at Adelaide. It was not one of my prettiest innings, but I knew that if I knuckled down and scored some runs, we still had a chance to win the Test. However, Virender Sehwag came up with a gem of a knock and took his team to a draw.

The good thing about my innings is that I feel a lot better about my timing now. Unfortunately, I also developed a niggle which kept me off practice till this afternoon. I trained and batted today, but will take a final call about playing tomorrow afternoon. There is a pretty exhaustive one-day series starting this weekend so I would not like to take a risk tomorrow, if I am not 100 per cent fit.

The Sri Lankans might just be the best prepared side for this tri-series, because they have a couple of one-day warm-ups before coming into the series. India and Australia have not had any preparation, so they might take a couple of games to warm up.

The Indians have taken the brave decision to not play Sourav Ganguly who complements Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the order. It will also be interesting to see how Mahendra Singh Dhoni fares, though I suspect he will do better in the one-dayers because the field is spread by the time he comes in to bat. He was caught behind the wicket in almost every innings, but that might not be the case in the one-dayers.

The Indians would take a lot of confidence from their last two games, particularly their young bowlers. They would miss RP Singh, but have enough cover for him.

Most of the batsmen are young and on their first trip to Australia, so it will be interesting to see how they face up to the two more experienced sides.