For Sri Lanka, there surely cannot be anything lower than this. Being whitewashed at home in an ODI series reflects the poor form and disintegration of a team, and this is what exactly came to the fore for the hosts in the last couple of weeks.
Let alone beating India in a game, the Sri Lankans were far from even competing in any of the games and looked utterly inferior in comparison to India. Riddled by injuries and suspensions, Sri Lanka never looked like a unit that would pose any serious challenge to India. In four of the five games, the hosts batted first but failed to cross the 240 run mark even once. It is where things precisely went downhill for them, as their batting let them down like never before.
For newly appointed ODI skipper Upul Tharanga, this was far from an idle series. Owing to a suspension related to the over rate offence, he missed two games. Post the loss in the fifth ODI, Tharanga opened up on the whitewash and was dejected.
“These are difficult times for us. India was brilliant throughout the tournament. Once we were looking at 260-70 but we lost some wickets. In our batting, we are disappointed a lot. We could not get the partnerships going,” said Tharanga.
Tharanga concluded by mentioning that his form had been a cause of concern for the side throughout the series.
“Losing a few main players also was the reason. But as a player I think we were not up to the standards. Happens in cricket,” Tharanga said.