Anil Kumble says he was surprised how the Indian batsmen played Ajantha Mendis. Read his piece in the Hindustan Times.

When you're struggling to pick a bowler out of his hand, the usual thing is to play him off the wicket. What was surprising was that many Indian batsmen did not pick his length early enough. The safest option, when you're not quite sure which way the ball will turn, is to play straight and some of our batsmen made the mistake of playing across the line and paid the price.

Bishen Singh Bedi, the former India player, is very impressed with the new mystery bowler. Read his thoughts in the Times of India.

It's wrong to say Mendis is totally unorthodox. His grip is freaky, yes, but his run-up (a busy, shuffling gait), delivery stride and follow-through are technically very sound. Also, his biggest strength now, the straighter one which is closer to a flipper than a top-spinner, is possible only because he bowls with the shoulder, and has a perfect long-arm release. It's incredibly impressive and correct. He doesn't resort to the laxity in the ICC's elbow flexion rules for effect. He's a delight, the first person after Sachin Tendulkar I would pay to watch

Laxmi Ratan Shukla, the Bengal and Kolkata Knight Riders player, tells Indian Express' GS Vivek that he didn't have any problem facing Ajantha Mendis.

“I was very curious and wanted to play him in the nets very next day. When he bowled to me, I played defensively to his first two balls. Because I had heard a lot about him, I focused a lot more on his hand when he was releasing the ball. Next thing I knew, I could easily tell which one was going to cut out and which was going to zip in. He tried all his variations, but I was picking the straighter one as well,” he says.

Shukla’s effort in the nets allowed his team mates to play him freely as well, something that helped shed that ‘mysterious player’ tag. So much so that despite joining the Knight Riders as a mid-season signing to shore up their ‘foreign player’ resources following the departure of Ricky Ponting, Brad Hodge, Brendan McCullum, as also injuries to Chris Gayle and later, Shoaib Akhtar, Mendis still only got to play in a single game.

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