Disappointed after seeing his team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Indian skipper Virat Kohli said tentativeness was the main reason behind their failure.

“I think we did not counter what was being thrown at us,” said Kohli at the post match press conference. “I think we should have been more smart with the way we wanted to go about playing against the spinners. I think in the end you saw (Amit) Mishra using his feet quite a bit. Ashwin did that. I think the other batsmen failed to learn from what should have been done on that sort of a wicket. So the need of the hour in the second innings was to take calculated risks when you are chasing a small total in the fourth innings.

“The intent has to be there which I think was lacking and it is something we need to improve on definitely. It is an area for improvement, something that should be a lesson for the batsmen today. I know everyone is very disappointed with the way we performed with the bat because that has been our strength in the past few months and we have been let down by our batting today. There are no excuses. There is a lot to learn from today and I am certain that guys will want to improve on a couple of aspects as far as facing spin is concerned.”

The wicket at Galle International Stadium offered plenty of turn and bounce on the fourth day for the spinners which Rangana Herath and Tharindu Kaushal exploited to nicety. When asked if the track proved very challenging, the 26-year-old said the team just failed to handle the pressure. “Cricket is a game of pressure. It is when the pressure is mounted on you, the wicket looks difficult. If it’s not, it looks easy. The wicket did not really change much in all the four innings, to be honest. The turn and the bounce was pretty consistent throughout.

“It all depended on how hard the ball was or how much pace the bowlers were bowling with. Once the bowlers got tired, it was difficult to get purchase out of the wicket. But I think they started bowling their spinners with the hard new ball and that’s why they were able to get that turn and bounce from an attacking line, from the stumps. And as I said, we didn’t counter it too well. I don’t think the wicket had too many demons or something that we had to face where people are getting hit in the chest or the gloves. I don’t think that happened. It was a case of us not playing fearless cricket and us not going out there and being positive. We were tentative and that’s why we ended up being exposed.”