Whose turn is it this time?

Mishra,who has picked up 32 wickets at 38.81 in nine Tests after an impressive debut against Australia,doesnt believe in elaborating too much about competing with the much younger Ojha.

The competition will always be there and it is good. At the moment the most important thing is to do well whenever the opportunity comes my way, the leg-spinner says.

Mishra feels it will be a great challenge for any spinner to bowl against the Lankan batsmen,who like the Indians are also fed on a diet of spin. What will be a challenging task ahead is bowling to batsmen with good footwork against spin bowling. Sri Lankan players are good players of spin bowling and we have our plans,and not its up to executing them, explains Mishra.

New experience

Mishra,who was left out for the Asia Cup after a disappointing run in Zimbabwe,has never played an international game in Sri Lanka but has toured the Emerald Isle with the Indian one-day team,where he was restricted to the bench. But having played alongside the likes of Tillakaratane Dilshan and Farveez Maharoof for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League IPL has been insightful,he says. In fact,the regularity with which the two teams have been clashing against each other,there shouldnt be any secret left anyway.

Players like Sangakkara and Jayawardene are great batsmen and taking wickets wont be easy but what will help is the experience of playing with these players in IPL. I havent bowled on a Lankan track before,so it will be an interesting month ahead, he adds. Zaheer Khans last minute exit due to a shoulder injury will leave adequate burden on Harbhajan and whoever accompanies him during the three Tests,starting from July 18 at Galle. With no left-arm pacer in the squad,Harbhajan will not have the benefit of bowling into the rough outside the right-handers off-stump. Besides,his spite with the ball maybe slightly weakened against a batting line-up chiefly made up of right-handers.

Ojha from over the wickets and Mishra from around however will have the advantage of troubling both the left-handers and right-handers in the Sri Lankan team thanks to the rough,which will be created by the right-arm pace duo of Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma.

Challenge ahead

The Indian spinners have also been involved in a lot of white-ball cricket for the last few months following the home Test series against South Africa back in February,and adapting to the longer format will also be a challenge.

Though he was touted more as a limited-overs bowler early on,Ojha who has 13 wickets at 29.53 in three Tests so far made an impressive beginning to his Test career with nine wickets in two games against the Lankans,both which India won convincingly. And the left-arm spinner from Hyderabad believes in keeping it simple. There is no point thinking too much. Im looking forward to the challenge, he says.