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SL vs IND | 2nd ODI Preview: Sri Lanka seek inspiration to halt India's mighty and smooth ride

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If ever there was even a bit of doubt over the credentials and flamboyance of the Indian team on the tour of Sri Lanka, all of them were dashed out of the ground by the batting order led by Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan. 

It was inevitable that the batsmen who are champions in the Indian Premier League would come hard against Sri Lanka’s bowlers, but their intensity and magnitude of aggression left all surprised. At the start of the chase, the hosts bowling attack looked so out of depth that they tried every kind of ball up their sleeves to see if Shaw would falter against one.

Then, after a short ball finally found the Mumbai lad off guard leading to his wicket, the hosts would have hoped of some respite. Another bit of surprise was thrown at them by the team management in the form of Ishan Kishan. He danced down the track on the first ball to make a bold statement about the brand of cricket India are there to play in the ODI and T20I series.

The relentless attack by Shaw, Kishan and then Suryakumar Yadav hinted at a possible change in the approach of the team management towards ODI cricket. The last time they played the format, England took on them with a completely different approach and it can be said that India are finally embracing the all-aggressive idea of ODI cricket.

Sri Lanka, on their part, did exceed the expectations by putting up a score in excess of 250 runs and it should be considered as a massive positive in the wake of their recent struggles. Batsmen got themselves in and played some delightful strokes to keep Indian bowlers in check. However, the firepower in the Indian side was too much to be defeated on a placid track in terms of movement for pacers.

Could Sri Lanka have done anything differently?

Surely yes. They would not have bowled too wide of Shaw’s off-stump or would not have bowled spinners against Ishan Kishan. They would have bowled to bring the ball back towards Shaw’s stumps and tested if he now has the answers to the questions the likes of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc had asked in Australia.

But, if they would have had in them to challenge India at so many levels, they would not be losing so many games in the recent past.

Sri Lanka vs India: Match Details

Date – Friday, July 20, 2021

Time – 03:00 PM IST 

Venue – R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Broadcast: Sony LIV, Sony Sports Network

Pitch report

The surface at the R Premadasa Stadium was slow in nature and it should be no different in the second ODI. 

The new Kookaburra balls swung very little in the first half of the game but bowlers made good use of slower balls and cutters as the deliveries were getting stuck in the pitch.

However, there was little to less hindrance to batsmen while playing strokes and it only improved under lights as Shaw made perfect use of the ball coming nicely onto his bat.

Team News

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka would not be too unhappy about their batting performance although they would be ruing throwing their starts. But, there would be the temptation of playing Lahiru Kumara, who can bowl well with the new ball in place of Isuru Udana who received hammering from Shaw.

Sri Lanka may well look to attack India with a short ball and Kumara can be a better exponent of that skill set than Udana.

The hosts would bank on their captain Dasun Shanaka and vice-captain Dhananjaya de Silva to bat more responsibly in the second ODI as they would have realised there were runs on offer in the first ODI only if they had survived.

India

Sanju Samson suffered a ligament injury in his knee to get out of contention of the first ODI and Ishan Kishan capitalised on the opportunity with a sparkling fifty on debut. He did not do anything wrong and even if Samson regain fitness, it’s unlikely that he would be able to replace Kishan from the playing XI.

India played two swing bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar in the first ODI and they can consider Navdeep Saini for his pace and bounce. Dushmantha Chameera extracted good pace and bounce in the first ODI and India would be tempted to unleash Saini to add one more dimension to their bowling attack.

Strongest XI

Sri Lanka

Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka (wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Lakshan Sandakan, Lahiru Kumara

India

Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan (wk), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini

Sri Lanka vs India 2nd ODI: Dream XI/fantasy XI

Ishan Kishan, Dasu Shanaka, Hardik Pandya, Wanindu Hasranga, Avishka Fernando, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Lahiru Kumara

Captain: Prithvi Shaw 

Vice-captain: Shikhar Dhawan

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SL vs IND | Kuldeep Yadav rejoices comeback from days of 'self-doubt'

India went back to playing with the wrist spin combination of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal after a period of nearly two years and Kuldeep could not hide his happiness. He said that they both share a “good bond” over the years and share their input on the flow of the game while on the field which ultimately helps the side and both of them as well. "I'm very happy that we both got to play together after quite some time. I think we're comfortable with each other and back each other. Whenever it is needed on the field, I tell him something or he tells me things. Our bonding is good. Maybe because we're so comfortable with each other, it shows on the ground. Our performance was quite good, and the way we did well, playing together after so long, was good for the team,” Kuldeep said in the post-match press conference. Kuldeep came onto the tour of Sri Lanka under enormous pressure after being dealt severely by the England batsmen in the series preceding the IPL 2021. Then, the Kolkata Knight Riders could not find him worthy enough of a place in the side albeit they were playing on low and slow surfaces in Chennai. He did not hide that he was nervous about making a sort of comeback after a long time but credited Rahul Dravid for creating an atmosphere that kept him going. He said that Dravid emphasized on correct “processes” instead of worrying about results in the last 15 days that helped him calm his nervousness while being with the Indian side. "Pressure… nervousness is always there when you play, and I was playing after a long time," he said. "Rahul [Dravid] sir backed me a lot and motivated me. We spoke a lot, and he told me that I should just enjoy bowling, focus on the processes that we have worked on in the last 15 days, and don't be tense about the result. I'm very happy that my performance was good. You're definitely nervous if you play cricket after so long, and you want to perform well. Kuldeep also pointed out the challenges of staying inside biosecure bubbles, especially when things are not going your way. He said that a prolonged period of isolation while not being trusted by the team management to execute and deliver on the plan creates a lot of self-doubts. However, he has accepted that with such a competitive side he will not get opportunities all the time the that he will have to endure some tough days as well. "It is difficult in bubbles. If you don't play, you get a lot of doubts in your mind. There are many people who want to help you, talk to you. But if you talk to too many people, then you create doubts within yourself also. But this is a team sport, and sometimes people get opportunities, sometimes you don't. You have to just wait for your chance. "We're lucky that the kind of atmosphere that is there in the team is so good. We've been in a bubble for a month, and the first 14 days were in quarantine in Mumbai. Then when we came here, the series also got rescheduled, so we got five more days. The kind of atmosphere that is there is so good, that we didn't feel it,” Kuldeep added. Kuldeep has had a tough day while bowling to England batsmen, who took a liking to him and smashed a lot of sixes. The failure against England in ODIs compounded the crisis for Kuldeep who slowly went down in the pecking order of the Indian spin department. His bad form in the two editions of the IPL followed by no chances in India’s ODI and T20 sides raised questions on Kuldeep’s future. However, he lamented no help for spinners in the pitches against England and asserted that careers don’t end on the basis of one or two bad games. He complained that his critics always overlooked success and bagful of wickets while analysing his recent failures and hence wrote him off. "Sometimes you get hit for runs, but other times you get wickets too. I have taken three-four wickets often, taken five-six wickets too. If people talk about that more, it'll be nicer. Nobody's cricket is finished after one game or two games. I think the last series was good for England because the pitches were very good in Pune. Spinners didn't have much help. It happens sometimes, the pitch is not in your favour. But sometimes you should credit the batsmen too for batting well, rather than say someone's cricket is finished,” Kuldeep asserted. Kuldeep shone brightly in the first ODI against Sri Lanka and picked up two wickets in the middle overs. His performance will give heart to the Indian team management as he and Chahal can turn things around in the middle phase of the games in ODIs. If Kuldeep rediscovers his mojo and regains his place on the basis of performance along with his partner Chahal, India will have a formidable wicket-taking bowling lineup.

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Men 7-0 Women | Double standards reek as Sri Lanka women remain the only game-less WODI team post pandemic

With India playing the Sri Lanka Men’s team in the first of the three-match ODI series in R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday, July 18, it was the seventh series in which the Sri Lankan Men’s team participated post-pandemic of 2020. And what about the Women’s team? Well, the answer is zero. The Sri Lankan team led by Chamari Athapaththu has not had a go at the cherry ever since their last World T20 match against Bangladesh in March 2020. On the other hand, WODI status earned teams that are lower in stature and experience such as Bangladesh and Ireland too have played some form of cricket or the other. Even non WODI members such as Scotland and Zimbabwe Women too have had some game time, but not Sri Lanka. What plagues the association is hard to teel as they have been going all guns blazing against the men’s team for contract signing and in the meanwhile seemed to have forgotten that a Women’s team of their also exists. The most important factor is that Sri Lanka has been scheduled to host the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 (2022) Qualifiers in December which has been postponed many times since July 2020. A nation that would be hosting the Qualifiers hasn’t played a single game while the rest of the teams (except Thailand) participating in the qualifiers have had some game time or the other. While West Indies have played two series, one against England Women and the other against Pakistan Women during the pandemic, Pakistan too have played two series one against Zimbabwe Women (curtailed midway due to Covid) and the other against West Indies Women. Ireland Women have played a T20I series against Scotland Women and are in the process to host Scotland and Netherlands Women ounce again for a tri-nation ODI tournament. Bangladesh’s Emerging Women’s team, which had many main team players in it also played four ODIs against South Africa Emerging Women’s team. All this shows that boards with either similar or fewer resources than Sri Lanka Cricket have at least tried to arrange games for its Women’s teams while Sri Lanka cricket has remained in neglect of their team. With hardly five months to go for the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers, it would be interesting to see how and when Sri Lanka cricket would wake up to the needs of its Women’s team.