The expected and the unexpected

Come the first test of a series featuring India, and one can expect a reasonably incompetent performance, possibly culminating in a heavy defeat. The Galle test, therefore, is not much of an aberration, but rather, just another data point that further clarifies and establishes the claim that Team India is very consistent with its inconsistency. Things will be better in the second test, I'm sure (or maybe I'm not - is such certainty justified with such an inconsistent outfit?)

What is an aberration, however, is that a test bowler is retiring with 800 wickets to his name. To be honest, I haven't still quite wrapped my head around that number. 300 wickets used to be a lot and then it got to 400. From that point on, the wicket-taking record became an increasingly fantastic number. 500? 600? 700? These numbers simply boggled the mind. Murali has gone one further, and staked out a point that is going to be very hard to get to for any bowler that follows him. Besides the usual worries about injuries, form, getting "found-out", will bowlers of the future even play enough test cricket?