Sunday 1st Dec, 2024
Across the seas, India was supposed to suffer from timidity. It wasn’t a stereotype but a reality evident from defeats abroad since its Test debut at Lord’s in 1932.
The tide turned since the 1970s and when Virat Kohli’s men won the Test series in Sri Lanka at 3-0, it proved to be a fresh milestone. The latest result was the first time that an Indian squad has swept a series once it got past the immigration counters in foreign airports.
Grappling with transition worries and injury woes, Sri Lanka is no longer a tough opposition. Yet, India deserves credit for dishing out a brand of cricket that was alluring.
Interestingly, India’s dominant journey in Tests commenced during the 2015 tour of Sri Lanka. That outing was wrested at 2-1 and subsequently India played 24, including the one that concluded here on Monday, and won 18 and lost just a solitary game.
Through the Tests at Galle, Colombo and here, Kohli found diverse heroes. Shikhar Dhawan was keen to join his family in Australia when he got a call from the selectors following M. Vijay’s sore wrist.
The southpaw rewarded the faith with a chart-topping 358 inclusive of two hundreds and bagged the ‘Man-of-the-Series’ award.
The rest of the batting unit flourished with K.L. Rahul striking fifties at will and Cheteshwar Pujara (two tons), Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane (one century each) notching up three-figure marks. Critically, the lower-order lent the turbo-charge with R. Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya contributing handsomely. There was no respite for Sri Lanka as India racked up 640, 240 for three declared, 622 for nine declared and 487.
Pandya proved to be the find-of-the-tour. He batted with abandon while still being clued into the team’s needs, bowled with vigour and continued to be Kohli’s ‘gun’ fielder in the outfield. Pandya’s 96-ball 108 at Pallekele was the final knockout that deflated Dinesh Chandimal’s men.
The bowling hit the high notes through Ashwin (17 wickets), Jadeja (13) and Mohammed Shami (10). When Jadeja got suspended from the third Test, chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav stepped in and returned a match-haul of five wickets and it spoke volumes about the team’s rich resources.
Umesh Yadav and Pandya too got vital breakthroughs. Except for that phase in Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club when Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis prospered, the visitor’s attack remained potent.
Hearteningly, Kohli and company sought to test themselves in different match-situations. Twice the follow-on was enforced and victories were registered and the India captain explained his rationale: “In the last game, we enforced the follow on but we did not execute the things that we wanted to, to the best of our abilities. Plus the opposition played well. This time (final Test) we took it as an opportunity, we decided to treat this (day three) as day five of a series-defining Test on an away tour where we will have to get an opposition out within 60-70 overs. So we keep finding different situations and scenarios where we can challenge ourselves as a team first before we look at the opposition.”