The real battle starts here

Uncertainty loomed large over the composition of the Indian team on the eve of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Delhi. Rahul Dravid, suffering from fever, did not practice with the team, but is likely to recover in time to play. It is not entirely clear if Virender Sehwag's situation is as good. In bed with a throat infection, Sehwag had struggled to eat solid food, and was in a city hospital receiving treatment. He was on intravenous drip, receiving nutrition and medication in this manner. It looks extremely unlikely that he will play, although there was no clarity coming forth from the board-appointed media officer M Baladitya.

Should Sehwag not play, Yuvraj Singh will get a go, although whether he will open the batting with Gautam Gambhir, or bat in the middle-order while Sourav Ganguly is promoted to do the job, remains unclear.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, were happy to announce that everyone was fit and available for selection. Marvan Atapattu stressed the fact that his team had taken all they could out of the Chennai match, and Tom Moody, the coach, was equally upbeat.

As much as we would like to think otherwise, most tongues are wagging in the direction of Sachin Tendulkar. Yes, India must win, the fans tell you, but what about Sachin's 35th Test century? Ever since he got to century No. 34, albeit with a little help from the butterfingered Bangladeshis at Dhaka just over a year ago, fans have eagerly waited for the one ton that would push him to the top of the heap, clear of Sunil Gavaskar. The rain-drenched Chennai affair provided a good chance for him to get the milestone out of the way, but it was not to be. Can Delhi do the trick?

After the South Africa one-dayer at Kolkata this Indian team will not be thinking too much about getting the most out of the home advantage, but still, no team likes to play a big game on a largely untried ground. The Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi is no young turk when it comes to stadia, but it has been in such a state of flux since the Delhi and District Cricket Association set out on a revamp in 2004 that no-one is really sure what to expect till the last moment. The teams have not even been able to practice on the ground, which is always a dampener. "It's always nice to get a feel of the ground you are playing at, in the lead up. It's the small things - just knowing where everything is, what the different stands are like, what the view is from different field positions," one Indian player remarked. India have been practising at one ground, the Sri Lankans at a second, and the actual game will happen at the Kotla. Not ideal.

One of the worst things in modern cricket is the death of the inventive sledger, the artful dodger of tricky questions, the witty manipulator of routine press conferences. Rod Marsh would rather ask the batsman who walked in, "how is your wife ... and my kids?" than go "You can't effing bat you effing effer"; Nasser Hussain would reply, "You've covered enough cricket, tell me how you'd bowl to Sachin," when asked what his strategy was, rather than say, "I don't want to reveal strategy before a match." Nowadays the talk is all about the "psychological edge" Sri Lanka gained from bowling India out cheaply on an iffy Chennai pitch in a match that was shortened more than the skirts of airhostesses on gimmicky airlines. There's talk of "moral victories" when defeat was not even in the realm of the possible. Let's face it, any which way you look at it, this Test series begins here. What has passed is a lot of water under the leaking covers.

A key factor in Delhi could be the manner in which India blunt Sri Lanka's key bowlers. With all due respect to the rest of the crew, Sri Lanka's success hinges largely on how badly opposition batsmen play Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. If batsmen have to dig deep enough to give Vaas ten maiden overs on a day, then there's serious trouble. Vaas needs just two wickets to hit the 300-mark in Tests, and will be only the second Sri Lankan to do so. If Murali reaches that eye-popping delivery stride unchallenged, without being seriously attacked, there's a struggle on hand. India's mastery over Sri Lanka in the recent one-day series could not have happened without their best batsmen taking on that strangulating duo. Can Sachin Tendulkar attack Vaas as he did recently? Will VVS Laxman have the wherewithal (and time at the crease before being tragicomically run out) to banish Murali to all parts? That we did not see at Chennai. That we must look out for.