India look to drive home the advantage

Sri Lanka under pressure to bounce back after listless recent showing

The spectre of growing frustration among their supporters and a hounding local media will be weighing heavily on the Sri Lankan cricketers’ minds as they take on a rampaging India in the second of the five-match one-day international series here at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

With their morale at their lowest ebb after crashing to a humiliating nine-wicket loss in the first ODI in Dambulla, the home team needs to pull off something special to not only stop India’s juggernaut but also to ensure their fans’ frustrations don’t turn into anger.

On his part, skipper Upul Tharanga played his PR cards well by pleading to the public to rally behind the team in these troubled times but the least the team can do for the home supporters is put up some fight, if not win.

A nine-wicket drubbing with more than 21 overs to go in the chase isn’t the true reflection of this side that has a handful of talented players for this format. There were pockets of play in the first game when the hosts managed to drive India on the back foot with their aggressive batting. But impetuous strokes, which were oblivious to the situation they were in, saw them concede advantage without the visitors having to work too hard.

Once the Indian bowlers restricted them to 216 all out, centurion Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Virat Kohli taught their Lankan counterparts an object lesson in the art of building an innings without resorting to fancy shots like sweeps, reverse sweeps and paddle sweeps.

But then, as they say, when it rains it usually pours. Having dealt effectively with all the frontline bowlers, Niroshan Dickwella fell to an innocuous round-arm ball by Kedar Jadhav.

If this wasn’t bad enough, Tharanga embarrassingly fell to a full-tossed delivery from the same bowler. These are signs of a team in total disarray and how they pull themselves out of this rut is a real test of their character.

And as is the case with any team on a continuous losing run, there are going to be changes galore. The outcome of Sunday’s game may cost all-rounder Thisara Perera, chinaman Lakshan Sandakan and leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga their places in the 11. Left-arm spinning all-rounder Milinda Siriwardana, right-arm quick Dushmantha Chameera and left-arm orthodox Malinda Pushpakumara are likely to get a look in on a pitch that is not going to be too dissimilar to the one in Dambulla.

Where Lanka grapple with the tough task of finding the right players to field, India, brimming with resources at their disposal, wonder as to whom to leave out. There is, however, not much scope to tinker with when your bowling unit restricts opposition to 216 all out and the batsmen finish the game losing just one wicket, that too in the form of a run-out.

Kohli did speak of experimenting different players at different positions but it’s unlikely he will make any changes without the series in the bag. It will also be interesting to see in which shape and form some of the middle-order batsmen are.

While Dhawan, Kohli, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya (in Tests) have had healthy stints in the middle in match situations, the likes of Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni and Axar Patel last batted in West Indies. The trio will be itching for its chances as would be Rahul who last played in a limited-overs match this January against England.

The bowlers, however, had a good workout. Hardik Pandya wasn’t too bad sharing the new ball with Bhuvneshwar Kumar while Jasprit Bumrah continued to be as impressive as ever. The spin duo of Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal, though the latter was a bit expensive, had a good outing as well while part-timer Kedar Jadhav made big dents with his off-spinners.

All these combined, put out a perfect show on Sunday. Lankans have an onerous task of stopping India from repeating that performance.