The war of words has already started. Virender Sehwag has spoken about his attempts at taming Ajantha Mendis. Muthiah Muralitharan has minced no words while speaking about it being a revenge series with India having won the previous one day contest in Sri Lanka six months ago. Well, cricket matches these days are not only played on the field but off it too with mind games being an important tactic before or during a series so this may be nothing new. The intensity of the arguments and the seriousness of the views however certainly are.

I suppose much will depend on how the Indian batsmen handle Ajantha Mendis. Last time out the mystery spinner bamboozled them in the ODIs as much as he did bewilder them in the Tests picking up 13 wickets very economically in the five matches. The duel between him and the Indian batsmen could well hold the key to the series and that is why Sehwag has picked out Mendis for some psychological warfare on the eve of the contest. I am sure the Indians have planned a counter attack and they can take some satisfaction from the manner in which the Pakistan batsmen handled his variations in the just concluded three-match series. They played him quite confidently as evidenced by Mendis picking up just four wickets.

Mendis' career figures are quite mind boggling – 59 wickets from 24 matches at less than 11 apiece – and he recently became the fastest bowler to reach 50 wickets in ODIs surpassing Ajit Agarkar’s decade-old record. But somehow I can't see Mendis repeating the sort of success he enjoyed last time out. And in the final analysis with Muralitharan having a below par record against India it could well be the battle between the trio of fast bowlers on each side that could decide the fate of the series.

Of course much would depend on the batting and here both sides seem to be equally matched. In the just concluded series against Pakistan the Sri Lankan batting came off rather well. Tillakaratne Dilshan is having a whale of a time at the top of the order and young Thilana Kandamby is shaping rather well. Then of course there are the established players in Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Kapugedara and that old warhorse Sanath Jayasuriya who shows no lack of enterprise or innovation even in his 40th year. But of course India have the batting to match the Lankans going by the names in the line-up that starts with Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir and continues with Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Yusuf Pathan and Suresh Raina.