Sangakkara blasts Sehwag

Virender Sehwag slammed the Sri Lanka players of being afraid of losing, and Kumar Sangakkara blasted Sehwag for speaking unnecessarily and creating a controversy. He also said that Indian cricket board and its players were always trying to take things to their advantage. Sangakkara accused Sehwag for being unsportsmanlike. He said there was a contrast in the press conference regarding that no-ball. He thinks everyone’s got the responsibility to move on from this incident.

Sangakkara also said India’s international cricket had made things more difficult for his team. The Lankan board has done everything to make sure there’s transparency. Talking about Randiv’s act, Sangakkara said, he doesn’t think it’s going to affect the relationship and he regret what happened overall. He made sure that there is been some damage done to the reputation.

Sehwag is the hurdle

India opener Virender Sehwag will be a major hurdle for the hosts in the third cricket Test, feels Sri Lanka batsman Thilan Samaraweera. Thilan, who made 137 to push Sri Lanka to 425 in their first innings, said this will be a crucial match. He said Ojha bowled well throughout the innings. But if Sehwag gets out, a lot of things will turn around. He also said that still they are ahead by 250 runs. And if they can take couple of wickets, they are in the game. Sehwag was at his best as he led the team with 97 in 87 deliveries.

Thilan said his century was special as it came in difficult circumstances. He said he has scored runs when needed for the team but this is a special because this is a real Test wicket. He added saying 400 plus is a good total in this wicket which would be difficult to bat in the fourth innings. But unfortunately Prasanna and Angelo got out.

Sehwag hits 7000 Test runs

On Wednesday, Virender Sehwag became the sixth Indian batsman to score 7000 runs in Tests during his unbeaten 97 runs on the second day of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka. Sehwag reached the big milestone during the final Test when he scored a single from Sri Lankan bowler Lasith Malinga to bring up his score to 7000 at the Oval pitch. He is the 38th batsman overall to have scored 7000 runs. Sehwag, who made his debut against South Africa in 2001, was playing in his 79th Test.

Sunil Gavaskar was the first Indian to hit 7000 runs in Test cricket years ago, while the other Indians in the list are Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. Sehwag remained unbeaten on 97 at the end of second day's play. During his 87 ball stay at the pitch, Sehwag smashed 17 boundaries.

Sehwag's absence won't be loss - Manjrekar

The former Test batsman Sanjay Manjrekar feels Sehwag's absence will not affect India's chances in the T20 World Cup as they have enough back-up to fill up place. Sehwag was dropped due to a shoulder injury during the Indian Premier League and was replaced by Tamil Nadu opener Murali Vijay, who had a successful performance with the Chennai Super Kings. He added the impact that Sehwag makes in Test cricket is far greater than the impact he makes at the T20 level. He is confident India will be able to bear his loss.

Interestingly, Sehwag was injured during the 2009 World Cup held in England. Although he travelled with the team, Sehwag did not play a game. Manjrekar said, he think the selectors went for a top order batsman and the idea was to replace an opener with someone who bats at the top of the order. He has been batting at number three and opening as well. Manjrekar feels India's bench strength is becoming very powerful and IPL has played a major role in this direction.

The great thing about the IPL is that it threw up a lot of talent that India could use in T20. Somebody like Uthappa was a revelation. Ojha and Amit Mishra did well too. I think the wealth of T20 talent is growing because of the IPL. He said it's surely time to test their bench strength at the highest level because India must find alternatives to the likes of Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid and Zaheer Khan as soon as possible.