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‘Bitter-swee’t is the term that can be used to describe Kumar Sangakkara experience at the Australian Tour of 2012. The Sri Lankan captain joined the very exclusive 10,000 runs club, consisting of just Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis, just in the last week of December with his 58 runs in the first innings of the second Melbourne Test. Before he could celebrate in full form, he fractured his index finger on the left after being hit on his glove with a ball bowled by Mitchell Johnson. A surgery will be required to fix the broken finger; and a total of at least six to eight week will be required for the treatment and recuperation.

Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, not only will Kumar Sangakkara be unavailable to play for Sri Lanka’s final Test in Sydney, but also for the five One Day Internationals and two Twenty-twenty games slated to take place over the next one month.

Australians kick started the ODI series with a victory of 107 runs over the Sri Lankan cricket team. But it looks like their luck ran out with first match. The second ODI and third ODI were won by Sri Lanka, by eight and four wickets respectively. The fourth ODI match was called off due to rain, much to the chagrin of the Sri Lankan captain, Mahela Jayawardene, who knew that Sri Lanka had the upper hand and would have definitely won the match had they proceeded to complete the match.

Throughout the series both the batsmen and bowlers, especially the latter, have put up impressive performances. The series is also slated as Jayawardene’s last series as the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket squad. The fifth ODI was the most important as that would have decided the eventual winner, or so everyone thought. Even with Australia’s 32 run victory in the match, the series have ended in a tie between Sri Lanka and Australia with a score of 2-2. It appears as though Sangakkara was sorely missed during the match. His presence might have shifted the match in Sri Lanka’s favour.

The year 2012 was a positive highlight in Kumar Sangakkara profile. He had reaped plaudits by the dozen; some of which included the prestigious Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year and the People’s Choice award. Add to that his inclusion in to the 10,000 runs club and he would have had a perfect year, had he not been injured.

The Indian team is unraveling, one player at a time, just in time for the much anticipated India vs. Australia series. Not sure as to whether this is a premonition of disaster that our performance will bring or if it is nature’s way of weeding out the unnecessary and molding the Indian cricket team into a mean fighting machine. Be assured that ninety nine percentage of the Indian population are leaning towards the more pessimistic take on the situation and worrying ourselves sick ahead of the exciting series. What else are we to do when four of our best players have been rendered unfit to play in the game due to unfortunate injuries?

It all started with fast paced bowler- Umesh Yadav spraining his back during the Test series against England held in Ahmadabad in November 2012. He was forced to sit out for the second and third tests to recuperate and be back in time for the fourth test. But h rehabilitation period did not end there. According to the latest news, Yadav has not made it to the team that will be battling Australia in the test series. It is such a shame that the speedster can’t participate as a lot was riding on him.

The next one to be relegated from the match due to an injury was another fast paced bowler- Zaheer Khan. He was physically hurt during the Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat in December 2012 and had avoided playing in the rest of tournament. He was supposed to be back by January 21, but the healing process is taking some time and it will be a while before he starts bowling again. Hopefully he might available to play for the second half of the Australia test series.

Another bowler- Aaron, recently fell prey to whatever curse that has been plaguing the bowlers. Besides a back sprain, he has also been victim to a nasty knee injury that will keep him out of the Australian series. Irfan Pathan suffered a knee injury which kept him at bay for a month while there isn’t much information available on the damage that Munaf Patel’s incurred. The latest casualty of cricket activities is Ishant Sharma.

Ishant Sharma’s profile has always been an injury ridden one. Sharma who is the player of the Indian cricket team underwent treatment of his injured left ankle. Though initially it was stated that he might have to give the Aussie test series a miss, with timely treatment and a lot of persuasion, he is back on track and playing in the test series.