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WILL THE REAL CRICKETERS PLEASE STAND UP



“After we finished the West Indies tour and went to South Africa in 2013 that was a challenge. If I am not wrong after that we went to England, New Zealand and Australia and we knew that was going to be a challenge with the big names retiring," Rohit Sharma told reporters before leaving for Sri Lanka.
"We played some good cricket in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, so I am sure this unit will do well in Sri Lanka. Our challenge will be to win all the three Test matches there and comeback as champions," Rahane said echoing Rohit’s thoughts.
Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun carrying on the team baton stated that speed merchants Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav will take up the challenge to “maintain speed as well as be accurate.”
“You don’t come to the ground to draw a match, so you play a brand of cricket where you take the game forward. The role I play is hammering that into their system. We don’t mind losing playing in that fashion. But it is the brand of cricket you want to play because if you get used to it, you will start winning more than you lose.” These were the words of our director of cricket (whatever that designation means) Ravi Shastri.
And finally Virat Kohli our test team captain, “When I came here to play the first ODI series I was told that India had not won a ODI series for 25 years. I felt no pressure then. We are here to play good cricket, every series for us is a part of our plan we want to put in for the next five to six years,” he said.
These are some of the quotes flying about in various media outlets reason being the upcoming three-test series against Sri Lanka starting in Galle from August 12th 2015. What is the benefit? How will it be helpful for the team? When was the last time talking helped a team in winning a test match? It’s nothing more than a clutter of unwanted noise. 
Virat Kohli has taken his initial steps into test captaincy but a growing trend of constant media chatter is visible be it through players or the team management. Whether it is a sincere effort to provide media with entertaining tit-bits which makes for an enjoyable read for the cricket crazy followers or is it a conscious effort on the part of the team’s think-tank to deflect from serious issues facing the team with their carefully planned mumbo-jumbo. Whatever is the truth only time will tell?
Truth be told Indian team has more than enough on its plate be it the scratchy form of both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to the perpetual Achilles heals of its cricket, how to take twenty wickets? So it will be prudent of them to cut the gibberish and concentrate on the real thing, which is playing cricket. 
Kumar Sangakkara, of one of the modern greats of the game will be saying adieu after the completion of the second test starting from 20th at Colombo. The fans all over the world will be hoping that this wonderful batsman who has over 12,000 test runs and a highest score of 319 can entertain them one final time before the curtain falls on such a glittering career. Incidentally Sangakkara will be the 17th Sri Lankan to play his last test against India. Muttiah Muralitharan, the wily off-spinner and Lasith Malinga were the last Sri Lankan who played their last test matches against India. 
So, let the game begin.



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