Can Team India overcome trial by spin in must-win ODI against Sri Lanka?
The last time Sri Lanka beat India in a bilateral ODI series, Arjuna Ranatunga was their captain, Sanath Jayasuriya was opening the innings, while Aravinda de Silva and Muttiah Muralitharan were also a part of the squad. Future captain Kumar Sangakkara had only just made his international debut. Yes, it was that long back. The Lankans would be keen to end the drought on Wednesday, August 7.
Sri Lanka have shown promising signs in both games in the series at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. They fought back from poor starts to post competitive scores. They tied the first match and won the second. Sri Lanka's spinners dominated proceedings after rapid starts from the Men in Blue provided by skipper Rohit Sharma.
For Team India, it has been a clear case of failing the spin test against a bowling attack tailor-made for the conditions. Still, they should be heavily disappointed in the manner that their batters have succumbed to the likes of Jeffrey Vandersay and Charith Asalanka - the latter being a part-time spinner. Given the kind of expertise in their batting order, they should have done better.
How Team India crumbled in consecutive games
It's natural for teams to have the odd bad day, but to repeat mistakes in consecutive games is something that should worry the visitors.
In the first ODI, they were 75-0 in a chase of 231. Rohit cored a fine fifty, but they kept losing wickets at regular intervals to Sri Lankan spinners. In the end, a tie was a moral victory for the hosts and a disappointing result for India.
The performance in the second one-dayer was almost a carbon copy, with the one major difference being that Team India ended up on the losing side.
Chasing 241, the Men in Blue were in cruise control at 97-0 in the 14th over. A failed reverse sweep attempt by Rohit (64 off 44) led to yet another batting collapse as India folded up for 208 in a chase of 241. Vandersay stunned India with 6-33.
Sundar backs India's batters to rise to the challenger
While India may have capitulated against Sri Lanka's spinners in the first two one-dayers, all-rounder Washington Sundar has asserted that the Men in Blue are confident of correcting their flaws in the must-win game.
According to him, India have the quality in their batting line-up, and it's just about individuals finding a way to tackle the challenge of Sri Lanka's spinners.
"We are quality players of spin. We've always played in these kinds of wickets, even at home, in Test matches, and in different formats... And we know a lot of our players have done really well, especially in the middle order, batting against spin.
"So it's just a matter of finding a way, their own individual self, and trying to get the job done," Sundar said at the pre-match press conference as quoted by PTI.
To put it simply, apart from Rohit and Axar Patel (33 & 44) the other experienced batters like Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul need to come to the party. If that happens in the third ODI, the Men in Blue should put up a much better fight against Vandersay and co.
Time to give Rishabh Pant a go?
Two matches are too short for a team to take any sort of call on the form of players. But given the fact that the Men in Blue are in a must-win situation, they might just ponder a change or two. If anything, they might want to bring in Rishabh Pant for say a Shivam Dube.
Given the fact that Rahul hasn't been neat behind the stumps, Pant could take the gloves and Rahul can solely focus on his batting.
That could be critical, as India cannot afford to make any mistakes in the final ODI in Colombo. But it's also equally true that Pant hasn't been in the best of nick, while Dube almost pulled off a win for India in the first ODI. So, it won't be an easy choice for sure for Rohit and co.