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The need to adapt -- a basic in cricket
One of the major challenges that international cricketers face is the need to adapt. They need to adapt to different pitch conditions each time a venue is shifted. Naturally the home team players have an advantage of knowing local conditions. For some player it is their local venues and that helps even more.
When a team tours, then pitch and weather conditions become alien. The conditions in some countries may be closer to home. Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have their similarities, but also have plenty of differences. Therefore the need to adapt becomes even greater.

There also is the need to adapt from the one day game to the five day game or vice versa, depending on which way the itinerary is arranged. When there are only a few days in between the longer and the shorter game then the task becomes even more difficult. This applies to both batsmen and bowlers.
The demand whilst on tour is very tough. These days there are very few lead up games and hardly any games in between the internationals. On the tour in progress Pakistan did not have any lead up games of either duration. The thinking is that players have so much of cricket and they must be match fit. A couple of days in the nets and they must be ready to go.

The difficulties arise when players lose form. It is ideal then to play against opposition of lesser strength and then score runs or pick up wickets, as the case maybe and then regain form. With this facility not available players sometimes continue throughout a tour unable to regain form.

Even top players suffer from this difficulty. At present Sachin Tendulkar is one such victim. He returned to the team recovering from an elbow injury in October last year to play against Sri Lanka. He got off to a cracking start in the one dayers, then scored a century in the second test to go past Sunil Gavaskar’s record to become the highest century maker in test history. From there on the runs dried up. Simultaneously Virender Shewag is also suffering from loss of form and India have a huge problem. They are getting by because the other players are performing but the Tendulkar, Shewag issue has to be sorted out.

The first and second innings in the test match concluded at the S.S.C., saw batsmen all at sea. Both Sri Lanka and Pakistan failed to reach the two hundred mark. They played almost like novices. The pitch did have some seam movement and bounce, but not for twenty batsmen to be dismissed so cheaply.

When it came to the second essay Sri Lankans lost five wickets and Pakistani’s lost one less. They occupied the crease for a total of two hundred and forty nine overs. What caused the sudden change?

Sure the pitch became easier to bat as the game progressed, but just as much or more, the batsmen adapted to playing a long innings. The players who got amongst the runs, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Upul Tharanga, Tilan Samaraweera, Shoab Malik, Imran Farhat, Faisal Iqbal, Inzamam-Ul-Haq were all restrained in their approach.

They eliminated risks, played as many along the ground and applied maximum concentration. All requirements for test cricket, all requirements to play long innings. The long and short of it was they adapted themselves to suit the situation. That is the requirement at the highest level. The preparation must begin from the under nineteen age group itself.

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