Shamik Chakrabarty in Colombo
In the end, it was a tie. India had the game under control via a 57-run sixth wicket partnership between KL Rahul and Axar Patel. Then, the Sri Lankan spinners struck again. Shivam Dube (25, 24 balls) played a good hand to take the tourists on the cusp of victory. But two wickets in two balls put paid to their hopes. India would be disappointed, but there are two more ODIs still to be played in the ongoing series. Here are the three things that we learned from the first game in Colombo on Friday…
Tail-enders need to show better batting awareness
The 48th over started with India needing five runs to win, with two wickets in hand. Dube muscled the third ball of the over from Charith Asalanka past cover for a four and the scores were level. He was out next ball, LBW on review. Arshdeep Singh was the last man in, but India needed only one run for victory off 14 deliveries. Inexplicably, Arshdeep went for a slog across the line, and as he missed the ball, he was caught plumb in front. It was poor cricket.
At the post-match press conference, Sairaj Bahutule, who is here as India’s bowling coach, defended Arshdeep’s shot selection. “We are confident about our batters till the end,” he said. “Arshdeep, Siraj; they can contribute whenever required. The basic message was to hit the ball if they got it in the range and be as positive as possible. We were just one shot away.”
All said and done, Arshdeep needed to show some common-sense. It was poor game awareness from India’s No. 11.
Batters will bowl
Sri Lanka were losing wickets at regular intervals. The Premadasa Stadium pitch had low bounce and some deliveries were sticking on the surface. And Rohit Sharma decided to give Shubman Gill a bowl. The latter bowled off-breaks but things didn’t go to plan. A long-hop was hit for a six by Janith Liyanage and another short one was dispatched to the third man boundary by Dunith Wellalage. Gill gave away 14 runs in the over and didn’t bowl again.
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The frontline Indian batters have been trying their hand at bowling at the nets for quite some time now and of late they are bowling in games as well. In the third T20I against Sri Lanka, Rinku Singh and Suryakumar Yadav bowled the last two overs and almost took India to victory.
There was a time when a lot of top-order Indian batters bowled regularly. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag were regular bowlers, especially in ODIs. Later, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina did the job with aplomb. Having multi-skilled cricketers in the side gives a captain a lot more options. But over the last six-seven years, that bit – batters rolling their arm over – was missing from Indian cricket. Now, there seems to be a conscious effort to bring it back.
“All our batters can bowl to be honest,” Bahutule said. “With practice, they will get better. You have seen in the T20Is how Rinku and Surya contributed with the ball. (Today) Shubman was given an opportunity. It’s an all-rounders’ game and moving forward, you will see batters making contributions with the ball.”
Rahul is team’s first-choice ‘keeper
It was a tough call to pick between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, but the Indian team management eventually decided that the former would be the side’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in 50-over cricket. On the eve of the first ODI, when Rohit was asked about who would be the team’s choice for the slot, he called for patience, until the game started. And as the team sheet was put out, the choice was clear. Rahul did the job when Pant was recovering from a car crash and he performed well enough to cement his place. Pant now will have to bide his time.
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