Nidahas Trophy 2018: Four key takeaways for India from first T20 vs Sri Lanka
Resting some of their marquee players for the rather low-key series, India fielded a relatively inexperienced side against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. It was rude awakening for the side as the home team clinically dismantled the Indian bowling to canter to an easy win in 18.3 overs. Following key areas are a cause for concern for the team management going forward in this series:
#1 Lack of support for Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan alone accounted for about over 51 percent of India's score at an impressive strike rate of 183.67. Rest of the Indian batsmen struggled to get going scoring only 74 runs off 71 at a strike rate of only 104.22.
Contrast this with Sri Lankans, whose average strike rate of top 7 batsmen was 149.29 and if we consider only the top 4 it rockets to 161.82. Clearly Indian batsmen failed to build partnerships and once Dhawan went, the team lost out an opportunity to finish strongly in latter stages of the innings.
It resulted in India losing out on those extra 20 runs which could have been the difference on such a flat track.