Muttiah Muralitharan still a World Class Spinner in his Swan Song Test

Sri Lankan spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, will make his final Test appearance in the first of the three-match test series against India starting from 18 July 2010 at Galle. With his retirement, he is going to end his 18-year Test career. He will continue playing ODI cricket until the next world cup that is going to take place in February 2011.

Veteran bowler Muttiah Muralitharan is just short of eight wickets to reach the record haul of 800-wicket mark in Test cricket. Muttiah Muralitharan is the leading wicket taker in both Test and ODI cricket. So far he has bagged 792 wickets from 132 Test matches. Shane Warne is in the second position with 708 Test wickets.

Muralitharan has also taken 515 wickets in ODI cricket and surpassed Wasim Akram to become the highest wicket taker in ODI cricket too.

It is the expectations of fans of Muralitharan that he will take eight more wickets to get 800. It will be a difficult record to break in future.

There is no doubt that thirty-eight-year-old Muralitharan will have to show his best to reach the land mark because the opponent team is India, who are best known for playing against spin bowling. It will be exciting to see a fight between Muralitharan and Indian batsmen.

Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is confident about his team’s good performance. He said his world number one team will not allow Muralitharan to make a memorable retirement.

However, Muralitharan has good record in Galle that Indian batsmen might have to worry about. Out of his 103 wickets from 14 Tests at Galle, he took 13 against India in two matches.