The old demons have resurfaced. Or maybe they had never gone away. Perhaps the first seven sessions of the first Test in Galle were just an aberration that had misled the country into believing this could be the immediate future under Virat Kohli. A future in which the Indian batsmen have learned to play spin bowling once again and cracked the formula to pick up 20 wickets.
It could still be – it’s too early to judge – but the belief was short-lived. The next four sessions reverted to type.
In one of Test cricket’s greatest ever counter-attacking innings, Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal’s 169-ball 162 turned the match upside down in a matter of three hours. The following morning Rangana Herath (7/48), who was wicketless in the first innings, took centre stage like he has so often in the post-Muttiah Muralitharan era to spin the home side to a great comeback win.
Same old problem
It isn’t the first time in recent years that India have completely lost control of an overseas Test match they ought to have wrapped up with ease. It was a recurring problem during former Test skipper MS Dhoni’s ultra-defensive style of captaincy.
Dhoni had let slip many an away Test from dominant positions – in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, England and even the West Indies to some extent. It was this weak aspect of his captaincy that piled the pressure on him before his subsequent retirement. He had little confidence in his bowlers because, well, India simply didn’t have good enough bowlers. That hasn’t changed in eight months.
The Galle Test defeat has come under the captaincy of Kohli, the aggressor, and so it feels different. The new captain had implemented plans in advance to ensure India had the resources to produce a different result when facing the same-old scenario. He chose to go with five bowlers to mitigate the very situation the team found itself in when Chandimal was blazing away on the third day.
With five full bowlers in the Indian XI, the Lankan batsmen should not have been allowed the room to recover from 95/5 when facing an innings defeat. Yet, Chandimal swept, reverse-swept (for a six no less), pulled, cut and drove to throw the Indian bowlers off their game. It proved to be a resounding success. He toyed with the bowling.
It somewhat vindicated Dhoni’s unrelenting stance over the last two years: that a Test captain is only as good as his bowlers and he felt helpless in that department. Quantity, i.e. playing five instead of four bowlers, does not work when the likes of veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh contribute next to nothing all game long. What it only does is take one batsman away from a team that already plays with a batsman less with Rohit Sharma in the line-up. And this told on the final morning of the Test match.
Meek surrender
India capitulated in meek fashion on Saturday. Where Chandimal had shown that the way to counter spin is through aggressive batting which unsettles bowlers, the visitors chickened out chasing a target of 176. They played the match situation and not each ball on its merit. The only signs of aggression came from Ajinkya Rahane – it’s no coincidence then that he top-scored with 36 – and Amit Mishra when all seemed lost anyway.
Shikhar Dhawan, a centurion in the first innings, didn’t score a run off the first 35 balls he faced on the final day. All 35 deliveries were bowled by one of Sri Lanka’s two frontline pacers. Here was an opportunity lost, and it set the tone for India’s miserable final day. Where a David Warner would’ve taken the attack to a side defending a low total, Dhawan went into a shell. The much-touted aggression in the new era was missing when it was needed the most.
Dhawan’s approach meant India had failed to eat into the target before Herath and Tharindu Kaushal were introduced into the attack to wreak havoc. The left-handed opener’s first runs of the day came via a streaky French Cut after India had already lost two wickets in the morning. Herath had accounted for the dismissals of nightwatchman Ishant Sharma and Rohit – the latter’s technique miserably exposed for the fourth time on this tour (or the sixth if you include dismissals off no-balls).
At 34/3, a target of 176 started looking like 376. Kohli came in and went back 14 balls later, edging Kaushal to Silva at an intelligently placed deepish forward short-leg. Dhawan followed soon after in quite fitting fashion: sending a leading edge back to Kaushal after prodding cautiously to a loose leg-sided delivery he would have otherwise dispatched with ease.
Herath then had Wriddhiman Saha stumped, both literally and figuratively. It was a symbolic dismissal too. India have been found wanting on the wicketkeeper-batsman front since Dhoni left the Test scene and Saha, at least for now, doesn’t seem to be the answer to the country’s problems. You only need to look at the opposition’s wicketkeeper to gauge what a difference one position can make.
By lunch, the match was virtually over. India’s long tail had no chance of overhauling the target after its batsmen had flopped. The deadly Herath-Kaushal pair took less than an hour after lunch to bundle the visitors out for 112.
It’s still early days in Kohli’s tenure. In four Tests, he has drawn twice, but also lost twice from winning positions. He must find the resources to solve problems from the era gone by and instill in his team a killer instinct to back his plans for Indian cricket.
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
It could still be – it’s too early to judge – but the belief was short-lived. The next four sessions reverted to type.
In one of Test cricket’s greatest ever counter-attacking innings, Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal’s 169-ball 162 turned the match upside down in a matter of three hours. The following morning Rangana Herath (7/48), who was wicketless in the first innings, took centre stage like he has so often in the post-Muttiah Muralitharan era to spin the home side to a great comeback win.
Same old problem
It isn’t the first time in recent years that India have completely lost control of an overseas Test match they ought to have wrapped up with ease. It was a recurring problem during former Test skipper MS Dhoni’s ultra-defensive style of captaincy.
Dhoni had let slip many an away Test from dominant positions – in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, England and even the West Indies to some extent. It was this weak aspect of his captaincy that piled the pressure on him before his subsequent retirement. He had little confidence in his bowlers because, well, India simply didn’t have good enough bowlers. That hasn’t changed in eight months.
The Galle Test defeat has come under the captaincy of Kohli, the aggressor, and so it feels different. The new captain had implemented plans in advance to ensure India had the resources to produce a different result when facing the same-old scenario. He chose to go with five bowlers to mitigate the very situation the team found itself in when Chandimal was blazing away on the third day.
With five full bowlers in the Indian XI, the Lankan batsmen should not have been allowed the room to recover from 95/5 when facing an innings defeat. Yet, Chandimal swept, reverse-swept (for a six no less), pulled, cut and drove to throw the Indian bowlers off their game. It proved to be a resounding success. He toyed with the bowling.
It somewhat vindicated Dhoni’s unrelenting stance over the last two years: that a Test captain is only as good as his bowlers and he felt helpless in that department. Quantity, i.e. playing five instead of four bowlers, does not work when the likes of veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh contribute next to nothing all game long. What it only does is take one batsman away from a team that already plays with a batsman less with Rohit Sharma in the line-up. And this told on the final morning of the Test match.
Meek surrender
India capitulated in meek fashion on Saturday. Where Chandimal had shown that the way to counter spin is through aggressive batting which unsettles bowlers, the visitors chickened out chasing a target of 176. They played the match situation and not each ball on its merit. The only signs of aggression came from Ajinkya Rahane – it’s no coincidence then that he top-scored with 36 – and Amit Mishra when all seemed lost anyway.
Shikhar Dhawan, a centurion in the first innings, didn’t score a run off the first 35 balls he faced on the final day. All 35 deliveries were bowled by one of Sri Lanka’s two frontline pacers. Here was an opportunity lost, and it set the tone for India’s miserable final day. Where a David Warner would’ve taken the attack to a side defending a low total, Dhawan went into a shell. The much-touted aggression in the new era was missing when it was needed the most.
Dhawan’s approach meant India had failed to eat into the target before Herath and Tharindu Kaushal were introduced into the attack to wreak havoc. The left-handed opener’s first runs of the day came via a streaky French Cut after India had already lost two wickets in the morning. Herath had accounted for the dismissals of nightwatchman Ishant Sharma and Rohit – the latter’s technique miserably exposed for the fourth time on this tour (or the sixth if you include dismissals off no-balls).
At 34/3, a target of 176 started looking like 376. Kohli came in and went back 14 balls later, edging Kaushal to Silva at an intelligently placed deepish forward short-leg. Dhawan followed soon after in quite fitting fashion: sending a leading edge back to Kaushal after prodding cautiously to a loose leg-sided delivery he would have otherwise dispatched with ease.
Herath then had Wriddhiman Saha stumped, both literally and figuratively. It was a symbolic dismissal too. India have been found wanting on the wicketkeeper-batsman front since Dhoni left the Test scene and Saha, at least for now, doesn’t seem to be the answer to the country’s problems. You only need to look at the opposition’s wicketkeeper to gauge what a difference one position can make.
By lunch, the match was virtually over. India’s long tail had no chance of overhauling the target after its batsmen had flopped. The deadly Herath-Kaushal pair took less than an hour after lunch to bundle the visitors out for 112.
It’s still early days in Kohli’s tenure. In four Tests, he has drawn twice, but also lost twice from winning positions. He must find the resources to solve problems from the era gone by and instill in his team a killer instinct to back his plans for Indian cricket.