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Warnapura scored 243 runs, (one century, two fifties) vs. India in five innings last July. From what I recall, he had a bit of Jayasuriya in him. He batted left-handed, opened the innings, and went for everything, and your mother too!
Then the Lankans didn’t pick him for the first three ODIs when he was on song. Instead they had Sanath and Sanga open, Warnapura came in for the 4th and 5th ODIs. Back then I thought it was stupid not to pick a form opener. Little exclusions like that can break a player - if I'm not picked now, when will they, when I'm 60 years' old?, to warp a Sachinism.
Here at Bored, Damith (our Lankan Bored Member) along with the rest of them, love taking the Mickey outta Malinda (Warnapura). Today, he came in all AK47s blazing, shooting at will, like the madcap I remember from that forgettable series.
Anyway, whether Sanath can play ODIs well into his 40s is not the question – is it time for Lanka to break the umbilical cord with their favourite son?
Could mean more faith in guys like Warnapura, who aren’t exactly in their teens. FYI he’s 30 plus. That should mean another ten years in Lankan cricket, right?
From Jayasuriya to Warnapura
When a hunch comes back.
by Naked Cricket
Even before I could see Delhi’s 27/1 this morning, my thoughts zig-zagged to Gautam Gambhir (GG):
How he is not a long-term solution as a Test opener. Without getting into the annals of his technique or stats, let’s just leave it at a hunch.
After being the runniest Indian batsman (after Sehwag) in the Sri Lankan test series, this sounds almost idiotic. Correction: It is downright idiotic.
While I’ve been amazed at GG’s comeback, my doubts with him opening in tests still linger.
By the way, this was way before I read Akash Chopra’s incredible interview.
It was documented at the incredible team selection here.
Incredible !ndia. Yes. Once they get Chopra in the mix. And shake it up a bit. With GG in the middle. Instead of Malcolm.
PS: When a hunch comes back it’s called a hunchback.
