• Home
• /
• Cricket

India lose Gambhir, Harbhajan doubtful

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,” Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said after the team’s pre-match training session at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo on Monday.

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,” the Indian captain said, 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,” he said. “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, adding the team will be named on Tuesday morning.

Both captains agreed the P. Sara Oval pitch will be different from the featherbed prepared for the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club, where 1,478 runs were scored for the loss of just 17 wickets.

“There will be a bit of bounce in it,” said Dhoni. “There is a bit of grass, but the surface looks hard and will have bounce and carry for the bowlers.”

Sangakkara, calling it a “pretty good wicket”, added: “A lot will depend on how you play on it because looks can sometimes be deceptive. But I think there will be a result.”

Of the 14 Tests played at this ground, 10 have produced results with the hosts winning seven, including the last five in a row.

Sangakkara said his side was determined to end the series 2-0 against the top-ranked Indians, who have not won a Test rubber in the island nation since 1993.

“Our focus is on playing good cricket over the five days and put enough pressure on the Indians to take their 20 wickets, which is not easy to do on any surface,” the Sri Lankan captain said.

Rival squads and umpires for the third and final cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka starting at the P. Sara Oval on Tuesday:

India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Murali Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Venkatsai Laxman, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel.

Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Suraj Randiv, Dammika Prasad, Chanaka Welegedara, Rangana Herath, Nuwan Pradeep.

Umpires: Daryl Harper (AUS) and Simon Taufel (AUS)

TV umpire: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI)

Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)