India vs Srilanka: 1st ODI turned into a tie
By Sunil Sarpal
It was a tipsy-topsy turn of events in the 1st ODI. The pendulum of the match kept shifting from one side to another and vice versa. The pitch was providing assistance to both seamers as well as spinners. alike and the life of batsmen was not a cake walk. In a situation like this, the batsman has to keep reinventing their game to suit the conditions and leave aside their natural flare and instinct.
If we take stock of Rohit Sharma’s innings, he looked like playing on a different surface, fearless and instinctive. He was hitting the ball as if there is no devil in the wicket. Sri Lanka’s slow ball bowlers were the most difficult to negotiate. They are crafty and posed end number of problems for Indian batters with variations and guile.
India restricted Sri Lanka to a paltry total of 230 runs on the board. On this pitch it is considered to be a par score. Rohit Sharma provided a flying start to India innings with a 50 runs in the first power play itself. Shubham Gill got out to an outrageous short when not been able to score up the ante. Virat Kohli too could not got going in his usual dominating fashion .and chose to play mostly on the backfoot because the ball was coming slowly after pitching. He was out playing to a front foot ball on the back foot. Apart from Rohit, no other batter could capitalise on the good start provided to the innings. Shivam Dube hit some lusty blows in the end and levelled the score. Rest of the batters could not score all important one run and the match was resulted in a tie.
Hardik Pandya is a genuine all rounder but his omission from the side is haunting India the most. He brings in both batting as well as bowing in equal measure to India’s cause, as a result, an important cog in India’s wheel. He should be replaced with either Arshdweep or Siraj. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is another wicket taking option a few time ago. Ravinder Jadeja too is good enough all rounder in this variety of the game. In Gavaskar’s comments, KL Rahul though gifted but does not have self belief to deliver at this level. India has other options such as Rishab Pant, Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson to chose from.
Another important take away from this match is that since India does not produce spinner friendly wickets back home, its batter struggle on such wickets abroad. India needs to prepare both spinning as well as fast pitches in equal proportion to overcome any eventuality at International level.
