Sri Lanka vs India: 5 Changes for India to Win the Second Test
Test cricket can be romanticised because in an unlikely moment, like life itself, a breeze can turn it around. In a matter of a session, a few hours, sometimes a few minutes, things take a paradigmatic shift and suddenly the hunted becomes the hunter and vice-versa.All that and much more was there for everyone to witness as India managed to lose a game they had in their back pockets from the first session of Day 1. Sri Lanka were five down for less than 100 in their second innings, still trailing by nearly a 100 runs to avoid an innings defeat.A couple of bad umpiring decisions, a couple of brave cricketers and one hero, and by the same time next day, they were celebrating a fascinating victory that India had no business giving away. A golden opportunity to win an away Test has been lost, yet again by India.More importantly, it was a series of lows – the lowest score against Sri Lanka, one of the smallest chases they have ever fumbled, one of the smallest totals Sri Lanka has ever defended and so on and so forth.Here are five changes they need to make if they have to stay alive in the series.
#1 Walk the talk
Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli are interesting people. They come out hard and aggressive when they talk. They made massive statements. But where was the aggression when India were faced with a bold counterattack by two spinners who refused to give anything away?
VVS Laxman would dance down the track and hit Shane Warne to midwicket all day. Sachin Tendulkar would paddle sweep some and then loft some more over long on. Rahul Dravid will cut anything short. That was aggression without much talk.
But, on Day 4, chasing a little over 150 runs India went into a rut. Shikhar Dhawan batted 34 balls before getting his first run and that was a bad tempo to start with. If he were not in a position to bat because of injury, it reflects poorly on Virat Kohli that he was still out there opening the day.
But more importantly, at no point did India attempt to attack the bowling. At no point did they look to score and not just survive. That lack of intent has cost them dearly and they didn’t even go close to that paltry total they were chasing.