Irfan Pathan and Rohit Sharma at a practice session in Dambulla on Tuesday

Dambulla: Jolted by the humiliating defeat in the series opener, India may opt to shuffle their struggling batting line-up as they go into the second one-dayer against Sri Lanka here on Wednesday hoping to find a way to regain their winning touch.

After losing the Test series, the Indians made a poor start to the one-dayers by losing the first game here by eight wickets and it will need a far more inspiring performance by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men to reverse their fortunes.

The absence of Virender Sehwag, who has been ruled out of the series because of an injury, has come as a big blow for the Indians who have been forced to have a re-look at the batting order. The Indian think tank is now toying with the idea of shuffling the batting order. But with an average age of around 24 years, Dhoni and his men will have to move mountains to get a stranglehold on the on-going series and this may force the skipper to move himself and other seniors up the batting order.

In that scenario, vice-captain Yuvraj Singh, who hit an explosive 172 in the lone practice match before the start of the ODI series, opener Gautam Gambhir and Dhoni himself will have to take the responsibility on their shoulders to guide the relatively junior batsmen of the team.

Understandably, dejected with their show in the first ODI, Indian batsmen were seen practising hard to realise their skipper’s aspiration of putting up a challenging total on the board.

Apart from the batting front, the visitors also have some problems in their bowling department. Though the pacers have maintained reasonably good line and length, the spinners, led by Harbhajan Singh, are yet to prove their worth, compared to the deadly Lankan duo of Muttiah Muralidharan and Ajantha Mendis.

Veteran Murali and mysterious Mendis continue to be the nemesis of Indian batsmen as the duo rattled the visitors’ innings on Monday, picking up three wickets each.

Mendis is turning out to be a threat for Indian batsmen who were once considered as the best players of spin and skipper Dhoni was candid enough to accept that they are facing difficulty in picking Mendis.

Stating that Mendis is more unusual than even Murali, the Indian skipper said the main issue was to get the score ticking in ODIs.

“Even if you pick him, by the time you realise what ball it is, it gets really late to play a big shot. You will see batsmen who can play him, but in ODI cricket it is not only about playing him,” admitted Dhoni.

In sharp contrast, the Lankans are high on confidence after the Test series victory and Monday’s convincing win.

Sri Lanka’s mesmerising bowling attack has always been their strong point. What was their prime concern was the depth in their batting order, but now it seems the bowlers have propelled the batsmen to strike form.

The spin duo of Murali and Mendis have been ably supported by veteran Chaminda Vaas and Co. throughout the series. However, in spite of all these, what can be a decisive factor in Wednesday’s crucial encounter is the toss, as the wicket seems to favour the pacers.

Teams

India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Praveen Kumar, S. Badrinath, Pathiv Patel.

Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardene (capt.), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Kapugedera, Chamara Silva, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralidharan, Mahela Udawatte, Jehan Mubarak, Malinda Warnapura, Dilhara Fernando.

Match starts: 10am (IST).

(agencies)