Playing Bandara over Murali would be damn stupid and suicidal, IMO.
Murali's economy is down in the last 2 years, but what people who do not analyse these properly forget is that between , Mid 2005 and up until after the VB series, Murali was bowling during Power Play . This meant his economy rate was getting a hammering because obviously during Power Play spinners are easy to lift over the circle .
Murali was having to bowl during Power Play during this period because the support seamers to Vaas (and occasionally Vaas) was getting caned quite early on and Murali appeared to stem the tide better (despite going at an economy rate of around 5 and not his usual 3.7 odd - because the seamers got caned over 6-7 an over) .
So this needs to be borne in mind when considering Murali's economy rate decline .
Having said that he has definitely become less of a wicket taker in ODIs and more a run limiting bowler in ODIs . But unfortunately that is the nature of ODIs and if the others before him have failed to get wickets and a few batsman are already well set , not only Murali but even God will struggle to get wickets in ODIs and hence his role changes to that of a run restricter , with a hope of choking the runs to the point of making batsman make mistakes . And this often happens when the batsman take a risk or two , usually against the less inocuous bowler at the other end and therefore others get rewarded for Muralis hard work in choking the scoring .
Bandara's success in the VB series in Australia is a prime example of this .
Murali's economy is down in the last 2 years, but what people who do not analyse these properly forget is that between , Mid 2005 and up until after the VB series, Murali was bowling during Power Play . This meant his economy rate was getting a hammering because obviously during Power Play spinners are easy to lift over the circle .
Murali was having to bowl during Power Play during this period because the support seamers to Vaas (and occasionally Vaas) was getting caned quite early on and Murali appeared to stem the tide better (despite going at an economy rate of around 5 and not his usual 3.7 odd - because the seamers got caned over 6-7 an over) .
So this needs to be borne in mind when considering Murali's economy rate decline .
Having said that he has definitely become less of a wicket taker in ODIs and more a run limiting bowler in ODIs . But unfortunately that is the nature of ODIs and if the others before him have failed to get wickets and a few batsman are already well set , not only Murali but even God will struggle to get wickets in ODIs and hence his role changes to that of a run restricter , with a hope of choking the runs to the point of making batsman make mistakes . And this often happens when the batsman take a risk or two , usually against the less inocuous bowler at the other end and therefore others get rewarded for Muralis hard work in choking the scoring .
Bandara's success in the VB series in Australia is a prime example of this .
