Umpires referral system will be back with this series

With determination and bundles of positive thoughts, Sri Lanka's national cricket team crossed the Palk straight last night for their full series against India. The 55 day long full tour consists of three test matches, couple of T-20's and a five match One Day International series.

One of the long time dreams of Sri Lanka is to win a test series in India. Let alone for a series, Sri Lanka has never won a test match in India in the least. A tough task for any team in the world though, especially in modern day cricket with the Indians emerging as a superpower of world cricket.

Nevertheless the current Sri Lanka team and its captain Kumar Sangakkara think that they are quite capable of matching India in their own backyard. They feel all what they need is to execute nothing more than the mental toughness on the field of play.

"We've just got to go there with a very strong mind. Just go all out. Not to take a back step but to go all out to win"

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara said after a strenuous practice session in Colombo. The practice session concluded at 11.30 a.m. but the captain had another 45 minutes long batting session which went onto show his commitment and lead by example.

"We go out there and give everything we've got to win that last frontier for us which is India. At the end of the day, it boils down to show how mentally fit we are" added the skipper.

The team is well prepared for the tour as they brought down SG balls and practiced with them to understand how the balls would behave. Unlike in any other country, test cricket is played with SG balls in India, which has a different seam than regular Kookaburra.

The SG is sewn with a thicker thread and it's a machine work in comparison to hand sewn Kookaburra. In colour, it's slightly darker than the Kookaburra.

Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara

In their preparation for the series, Sri Lankans tried more on skill work. There had been specific training in the nets and specific batting spells for spin, that's been working for them. They were trying to develop different modes for facing all types of bowling.

The target is to have a mindset to make sure that the team is going to score 350 -- 400 runs every time they go out to bat.

They tried to change their training with the bowlers having to understand the innovative methods to reverse swing or to spin and create more opportunities to take wickets.

"We're good enough to match India if we are really committed We've got to be tough, as possibly we can be, I mean physically and mentally" Sangakkara said.

The Aussies are clinical but Indians are a tough outfit. One of the reasons could be the quality of their domestic cricket structure.

In the last week, a 12-year-old Sarfaraz Khan's plundered 439 runs in a Harris Shield match in Bombay. This is the same tournament in which Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar scored 346 for his school, Shardashram Vidyamandir, and built a world record stand of 664 runs with former test left hander Vinod Kambli in mid eighties.

The Indians don't like pressure. They are vulnerable to the mounting pressure and the best example was the fifth ODI against Australia on last Thursday.

"They can manage periods. But if we keep consistently at them, they can cave in" said Sangakkara.
With three more wicket keepers in the squad, this is going to be a do or die series for Sri Lanka's regular test stumper Prasanna Jayawardane. He has come under extreme pressure to perform with his bat too. Arguably the best wicket keeper in the country, Prasanna Jayawardane is averaging 24.90 in 27 test matches and his biggest threat is that acrobatic keeper, Kaushal Silva from SSC. Kaushal boasts of more than 4000 runs in 72 first class matches with an average of 42.92.

The changing trend of the modern day cricket is to field a batsman who can keep wickets and it's not going to be the best man for the job any more. This was started by Sri Lankans as they handed out the gloves to Hashan Tillakaratne in New Zealand in 1991.

In the meantime, Thilina Kandamby is also knocking to the test door very hard. He made his presence felt in the ODI's and constantly keeping his middle order colleagues under pressure.

"If we have a problem at the top of the order, we can get (Thilina) Kandamby into the playing XI" Sangakkara said.

Having T. M. Dilshan at the top of the order, in the test team, it boosts the attacking mindset of the team. If he can be successful as he was against New Zealanders few months ago, Indian seamers will be under pressure. In a test field, there are lot more gaps for him to find the boundary.

"We can't rest. We can't be complacent. We've got to keep looking over our shoulders and make sure that we keep enough distance”

"That kind of competition got to be developed for places in the side" Sangakkara said. That's culture that he is trying to inculcate in the team.

Unlike in the past, the bowlers are not mere bowlers themselves. They have to come and contribute with the bat as well. The bowlers have been given difficult targets in training and matches. As for the test matches, they are given a target of 70 runs and in ODI cricket, their target is 50 runs.

In the training sessions the bowlers were given the taste of their own medicine of fast and short pitched deliveries apart from the hard ones coming out of those rusty bowling machines.

"It's not just going out there and batting mindlessly. You got to go and achieve some kind of an objective on that particular day" the skipper said.

"And the most encouraging thing was their positive response to the challenge"

"Until you really challenge these guys, they themselves didn't know what they are capable of. Now they themselves are surprised" the skipper added further.

The referral system is going to start in this series and it will have a clear impact of the result of the series. Ironically, it was tested for the first time in Sri Lanka two years ago, against the same opposition, and Sri Lanka came out victorious in majority of the occasions that were used.

"I think the referral system is good. I don't think anyone got to be afraid of it"

"If anyone is out, he is out. Whether it's marginal or not, batsmen have got to accept it. Whether it works for us or against us, I am for it" the world's number one test batsman said.