Sourav Ganguly, his head on the guillotine, will hope that Kandy does it again for Sri Lanka. Does them in, that is. In both their last two home series (against South Africa, and then against England), Sri Lanka marched north from Galle with an innings victory under their belt. Each time they lost a thriller at Kandy, and then let the series slip out of their grasp. The current thriller in Indian cricket circles is Ganguly's edge-of-the-seat hold on the captaincy. An unseemly debate rages as to whether Ganguly should be shown the door or walk out himself. Ganguly is not one to back away from a scrap. But he has only one option if he is to stay in his job: to lift his team's game - and his own - by several notches. The problem is that he hardly has a team left. As if injuries to Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and Ashish Nehra weren't enough, Javagal Srinath has now had to return home. "When things go wrong, they go horribly wrong", said Ganguly. It's horrible news for India all right, but it compels them to do two things that might have been done in the first place. Firstly, it means Zaheer Khan will take the new ball. Two days before the first Test, Ganguly made it public that Srinath and Zaheer would open the bowling. But Venkatesh Prasad twice took the new ball in the first innings and harmed nobody. In the five balls Zaheer sent down while opening the bowling in the second innings he twice struck Sanath Jayasuriya on the glove. The attacking option has now been thrust upon India. The other thing India might do is to include a second specialist spinner, though it is possible that outswing bowler Harvinder Singh will get a game. Not once in the last month have two specialist twirlers played together. Ganguly could view himself as a third seamer and play one of Rahul Sanghvi or Sairaj Bahutule to contain not only Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara, but also Marvan Atapattu, for whom centuries at Kandy are two-a-penny. India's biggest worry is their batting. Hemang Badani and Mohammad Kaif, the replacements for Tendulkar and Laxman, didn't score runs at Galle. Their stand-bys, Jacob Martin and Dinesh Mongia, are hardly Justin Langer and Simon Katich. It's a matter of keeping all fingers crossed and following the gut instict. There is talk that a bouncy wicket awaits India at Kandy. At Galle the pitch was an impostor, as the grass only briefly hid a crumbling surface underneath, so Sri Lanka are unlikely to play four fast bowlers again. They have thrown their faith behind Suresh Perera and retained him in the squad despite his being reported by Steve Bucknor for having a suspect action. They have a seam option in Dulip Liyanage, but Thilan Samaraweera, the offspinner, is tipped to make his debut. A final decision will be made after examining the pitch. Dav Whatmore and Jayasuriya have both warned against the "Kandy effect", and are keen to continue playing aggressive cricket. "We have to be single-minded like the Australians and go for the jugular", wrote Whatmore in his column. India will have to play well above their best to win the second Test. Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wkt), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Russel Arnold, 6 Hashan Tillekeratne, 7 Thilan Samaraweera, 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 Dilhara Fernando, 10 Ruchira Perera, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan India (probable) 1 Shiv Sunder Das, 2 Sadagoppan Ramesh, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Jacob Martin, 7 Sameer Dighe (wkt), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Rahul Sanghvi, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Venkatesh Prasad

Rahul Bhattacharya is staff writer with Wisden Online

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