Right through the ODI series, the pitch at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo has aided spinners with the job getting tougher for the team batting second.
That said, most in this illustrious Indian batting line-up have played on such surfaces during their formative years in cricket, which means the conditions at the Premadasa weren’t alien to them.
Yet, just as in the first two games, India’s batting group collapsed once again as this time, Sri Lanka hammered them by 110 runs in the final ODI on Wednesday to seal the series 2-0. This was also Sri Lanka’s first bilateral ODI series win over India in 27 years.
If it was leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay on Sunday, left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage (5/27) cast a spin web on Wednesday that bundled India out for 138 in 26.1 overs after Sri Lanka finished at 248/7, riding on opener Avishka Fernando’s 96 and Kusal Mendis’ 59. Luckily for the hosts, they won the toss for the third time on the trot.
Captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were among Wellalage’s scalps.
He landed the ball in the right areas, and the Indian batters had no clue how much it would turn or keep straight.
Keeper-batter Rishabh Pant and debutant Riyan Parag (in place of KL Rahul and Arshdeep Singh) were the two changes in the Indian XI. Still, there wasn’t any improvement in batting.
The series loss against a severely depleted Sri Lankan attack was something Gautam Gambhir would certainly have liked to avoid on his maiden tour as the India head coach.
