It is likely that if the huge international run-getters in Indian cricket are asked why they seem to be all at sea against the new Sri Lankan mystery spinner, Ajantha Mendis, they might rudely offer their bats to those asking this question and say rudely, “Go and sort him out yourselves.”

The point about Mendis is that because of the mental pressure he exerts on batsmen, other than his bewildering variety of deliveries, he enables the other bowlers to pick up easy wickets. This is not to say that Muthiah Muralitharan got his haul of 11 wickets in the first Test entirely because of Mendis. But the new boy’s presence and bowling helped all right. Not that Murali needs too much support to get wickets. Not for nothing is he the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket and it seems that the claim by his fans that  he would get 1,000 wickets in this form of cricket, might come true after all.

Good for Sri Lanka, who seem to find spinners who are so different. First, Murali, whose bent arm from birth allowed him to impart the sort of spin that no other off-spinner has done before. And then, in addition, it enabled him to perfect the doosra, which has flummoxed batsmen for many seasons.

Now Mendis, who seems to be doing tricks with the ball in international cricket, which schoolboys can only do with one made of rubber and that too from a short distance. Are they exceptions? Or, has Sri Lanka decided that its spinners have in future to be unorthodox and unconventional?

These two bowlers have redefined spin bowling. The legitimacy of Murali’s action has always been questioned, though the international body has been convinced of its legality. There is no such question about the action of the new boy.

But why is it India cannot produce such wonderful bowlers?