First Test: Sri Lanka v India
Date: Wed, 23 July 0545 BST Venue: Colombo
Sri Lanka's new spin bowling sensation Ajantha Mendis will make his Test debut as they begin a three-match series against India in Colombo on Wednesday.
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Hair set to return in second Test ... the recent Asia Cup and he will bowl alongside world record holder Muttiah Muralitharan.
"He is another sensation," said Sri Lanka Cricket board chairman Arjuna Ranatunga. "He is a freak bowler."
The game will also trial players being allowed to challenge umpiring decisions and have them referred to TV replays.
Meanwhile, India batsman Sachin Tendulkar will attempt to score the 172 runs he needs to overtake Brian Lara's Test record of 11,953.
But the spotlight is sure to fall first on Mendis, who has enjoyed a stellar start to his international career after he took 6-13 against India in the final of the Asia Cup on 6 July.
Mendis has confounded batsmen with a variety of deliveries bowled without an obvious change in his action and India's one-day captain Mahendra Dhoni admits they struggled to cope.
"Let's face it, we were just clueless against him and his variations and it was tough on the batsmen," said Dhoni after the 100-run Asian Cup defeat earlier this month.
"We were playing him for the first time and the batsmen just couldn't pick him."
Mendis bowls a mixture of off-breaks, leg-breaks, googlies, top-spinners and a new variation dubbed the 'carrom ball', which he flicks with the third finger, that batsmen have found difficult to pick.
"I don't know where we find these people but once in 10 years, we get these special bowlers coming from nowhere," added Ranatunga.
"I think we are blessed with them. Mendis has five different deliveries and he is mastering one more.
"I'm not comfortable with the word, but like Murali, he is a freak."
Former India skipper Rahul Dravid believes it would be a mistake for the experienced Indian batting line-up simply to focus on the threat of Mendis at the Sinhalese Cricket Club.
"Sure, he is going to be one of their four or five bowlers, but you cannot just focus on Mendis," said Dravid.
"They have got a couple of other guys in Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas who have got 1,000 wickets between them.
"It will be a big mistake to focus just on Mendis. We will just play it as we see it. We have come against a lot of bowlers in our times and we have succeeded against them."
Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara, Malinda Warnapura, Thilan Samaweera, Michael Vandort, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilan Thushara, Chaminda Vaas, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekera.
India (from): Anil Kumble (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Saurav Ganguly, Dimesk Karthik, Parthiv Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh.
(BBC)
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