SL vs IND: India’s tour of Sri Lanka has come to an end, and it has not met the most desired end for all Indian fans, as Sri Lanka ends their await, as after 10 straight losses they have secured their first victory over team India in an ODI bilateral series.
The T20 World Cup champions have left out the Rahul Dravid era and entered Gautam Gambhir’s era of competitive cricket; however, despite his experiments going well in the shortest format of white-ball cricket, he has failed miserably in the longer format.
Rohit Sharma has been India’s only performer in the ODI series with 150+ runs in three games and a strike rate above 140, which is undoubtedly remarkable. However, other than the Indian skipper, the team has failed miserably, and more than the coach and skipper, the poor form of the players is to blame.
India, who put in a stunning performance on the bowling front, performed exceptionally well to restrict them to a low total of 230. Even the Indians started well in the powerplay as skipper Sharma with a quickfire 50 led them to a great start before they collapsed to the Lankan spinners, as Wellalage and later skipper Asalanka picked wickets later in the innings to crash India’s winning hopes as the match ended in a tie. Arshdeep Singh was heavily criticized for his irresponsible performance in the final ball with just a run needed of 14 balls.
Secondly, India’s second game saw the performance of Indian bowlers as well as batters go down; however, Sri Lanka scored a decent total, and again, a similar scenario arose as Rohit Sharma batted exceptionally well for his 64, scoring runs at a blistering rate. After the skipper fell, the Indian team sank as the batters went back to the pavilion, and with some hopes stirred from Axar Patel and Sundar later, India fell short of a huge margin of 32 runs in such a low-scoring game.
The last game saw Sri Lanka bat first for another time, and the Openers batted extremely well as Avishka Fernando and Nissanka put on great performances. They took on Siraj, who had great figures against the same opposition. Later, with Kusal Mendis’ stunning rise as well, Lankans kept a total of 248.
Indian batters once again started well with the skipper leading from the front in the powerplay; he put on a stunning 35 strikes at 175, and the Indian team crashed with a total of 138 and faced a humiliating defeat with a huge margin of 110 runs. This is one of India’s most humiliating losses in recent years. This will be a major setback in Gautam Gambhir’s early career as the Team India head coach and a major setback before India makes it to the Champions Trophy of 2025.
