Without Sidhu, India would be exposed at the top

For my money, he has been and still is the best opening batsman in India. It should never matter how old or what age, just how good you are ? And he is the best.

He carried on yesterday in the same way he finished batting the second evening. Solid defence, good footwork, judgment of length perfect and when he attacked, he was decisive. Unruffled, he played right forward with a big stride, bat and pad together with his nose right over the ball, smelling the leather. Nothing was allowed to bother him. Sadly, a confusion over a single behind square-leg stranded him down the pitch as Sachin Tendulkar sent him back and he was run out. It was the only way Sri Lanka were going to get him out.

After this excellent innings his detractors may well keep quiet for a while, but as soon as he has a couple of failures they will be back with criticism. Without him, India would be exposed at the top of the order. He blunts the new ball bowlers with an excellent defensive technique and has mental toughness allied to patience and concentration.

It is necessary to have one of the opening batsmen playing the anchor role. Sidhu’s was a class act. Any opening batsman who averages over 40 in Tests can hold his head high in any company. Statistics don’t tell you everything, but they don’t lie either. He makes a century every five Tests which is a good yardstick to judge the best batsman. The rest of the day was not a good advertisement for Test matches. Sri Lanka early on decided they could not get 20 wickets to win the match. So they spread out the fielders and started bowling outside the leg stump. Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan even bowled over the wicket three overs of leg-spin into the bowler’s rough outside the batsman’s legs. Sanath Jayasuriya wheeled over with the left-arm spin over the wicket waiting for frustration and impatience to wear down the Indian batsmen.

The fact that he snared two wickets will convince him that the tactic was sound. On the other hand, the Indian batsmen — Sidhu being an exception — were not good enough to take the initiative away from Sri Lanka. It is vital to be able to sweep well because many of the deliveries are outside the leg stump inviting a free hit with a cross-bat shot. The modern-day reverse sweep would be priceless but none of the Indian batsmen are good sweepers of the ball, orthodox or otherwise.