Sri Lanka have won the first Test at Galle and will not be keen to lose in the second Test as that will be Kumar Sangakkar’s last Test match.
India squandered the chance to start the series with win. Now, they are at do or die situation as criticism is following from former legends and fans.
Sunil Gavaskar urged Virat and co. to stop “aggressive and tentative talk” and start playing good cricket.
Dinesh Chandimal’s 162 in the second innings and Rangana Herath seven wicket snatched the match away the match from India.
India, who were master while playing spinners, now has a poor record against off spinners. In England Moeen Ali and in Australia Nathan Lyon had made Indian batsmen’s life difficult, and now Rangana Herath has become a new tormentor of India.
India never looked as vulnerable against spin. Since the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Rahul Dravid announced his retirement and Virender Sehwag is not in the team for a long time, India’s mastery over spin seems over.
The second Test will start on August 6th at P. Sara Oval in Colombo. Now the question is what will be the right playing eleven for the next Test?
With Shikhar Dhawan ruled out from the series, an opening slot has become a problem area for India. The good news is that opener Murali Vijay, who is the most consistent batsman in the last one year, is making a speedy recovery for the second Test. Shikhar Dhawan has scored one century in the first innings and in the second innings he was looking comfortable facing the spinners, but with injured right hand his shot were not being timed well. He was caught and bowled by Tharindu Kaushal at 28.
KL Rahul, who replaced Vijay, will have fair chance to play as Dhawan’s replacement. Rahul in both of the innings was exposed by spinners-Kaushal and Hearth respectively as they trapped him LBW in both innings. If, India decides to be deaf in order to play Rohit once again after his pathetic show in Galle, then Cheteshwar Pujara will spend time watching the game from the bench. However, Pujara who is extremely good on turning pitch will not be a bad idea to ask him to face the new ball with Vijay. Although, it will be best if India replaced Rohit with Pujara at no. 3, and kept KL Rahul, who has become Dhawan’s competitor in recent time, will open the innings with Vijay.
Virat and Rahane will bat at no. 4 and 5 respectively. India should drop Harbhajan Singh as he was futile in the last match, took just one wicket conceding 90 runs. It is not clear who has called -selectors or team managment- allrounder Stuart Binny for the remaining series. Binny has played three matches, all three in England, and he did not get single wiket in that mathces, but he scored 78 runs at Trent Bridge. He might replace Harbhajan to strenghten the batting line up, although how much his bowling will help India is difficult to tell. However, Binny has a good ODI tour in Zimbabwe.
Binny has average 23.60 in three Test, but his current batting form may help India more than the wicket keeper Wriddhiman Saha who in the last match was cosidered as specialist Test batsman but has an avearge that does not look like batsman’s average 19.54. Saha has scored 60 in the first innings, but in the second innings he unnecessarily went to hit the delivery of Herath, but miss the flight as a result he was stumped by Dinesh Chandimal.
Nevertheless the six batsman and five bolwers combination was a balunder on spin friendly Galle pitch. With spinners Ashwin and Amit Mishra who has 33.96 and 21.94 batting average respectively, Indian batting line up will be stronger than the Galle match.
Two fast bowlers will be Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron. They bowled well in Galle pitch. But, the problem with the Indian bowlers is they struggle to bowled out tailenders. Both Indian spinners and pacers should work out a way to sweep the tailenders immeiately after sending the top order in dressing room. In the last match Sri Lanka were once pulled down at 95 for five, but from there Dinesh Chandimal changed the complexion of the match giving Sri Lanka 176 runs lead.
India playign XI: KL Rahul/ Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara/Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane , Wriddhimaan Saha (wk), Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron