Earlier Indian batting line-up was the best in the world, claims Muttiah Muralitharan

Later this week, the Men in Blue will face their neighbours Sri Lanka for a bilateral series. The series might not grab the attention of many owing to Sri Lanka’a awful string of performances, but there was a time when such a series would guarantee neck and neck battle. Reminiscing on the golden days of yesteryears, Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan stated that the Indian batting line-up was the best in the world.

It isn’t rocket science to understand what made the owner of 800 Test wickets come to such a conclusion since the famous five of Indian cricket, namely- Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid was enough not to let the opposition bowlers have a good night’s sleep.

Speaking to Cricbuzz, the man from Kandy said: “When I played against India, they had the world’s best batting line-up. Their batting was stronger than now I would say. If you take that batting line-up, they had [Virender] Sehwag, [Gautam] Gambhir, [Rahul] Dravid, [Sachin] Tendulkar, [Sourav] Ganguly, [VVS] Laxman and [MS] Dhoni batting from one to seven. Some of them are all-time greats of the sport and it was a tough task for us.”

Though the Indian team was very strong, they somehow never managed to win a series on the island nation for around 22 years. Remembering Sri Lanka’s dominance which is not visible anywhere other than the history books of cricket, Murali said, “Similarly, we too were quite strong at home. Despite such a good side, India failed to win a series in Sri Lanka for some 22 years. We have some happy memories having made things tougher for them.

“It has been a superb rivalry and some closely contested games. That’s what the sport wants. There were some series where all games were drawn. In 1997, we played five Tests, two at home and three away and all games were drawn. Both teams had some quality batsmen,” he added.

Chances of winning a Test match in India are slim

The 45-year-old is not an overwhelmingly optimistic individual who would put his money on Sri Lanka for the Test series. Keeping touch with the practical grounds, the former great admitted that the Lions will have it tough against India in Tests. ”

Our chances of winning a Test match in India, I would say, are slim. All teams have struggled to compete in India. In the last 13 years only two teams have won a series in India,” Murali stated.