Sri Lanka’s gamble of playing only one seamer backfires

Sri Lanka’s strategy of playing only one pacer in the form of Nuwan Pradeep came under the scanner from the outset given his knack of getting injured far too often. On the opening day of the second Test, Sri Lanka had done well to restrict India to 133 for 3, but they lacked a proper paceman to contain the duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. While Dinesh Chandimal once again looked to the hero of the first Test, Pradeep, he sustained an injury to his left hamstring after bowling just nine overs. With his only seamer not on the field, Chandimal then had to throw the ball to his spinners to bowl with the new ball, which helped the Indian batsmen extend the score to 344 for 3 on the first day. And it continued to hurt them on the second day too as Pradeep was ruled out of bowling for the remainder of India's first innings. With Angelo Mathews not fit to bowl, the hosts will now have to rely heavily on the part-time option of Dimuth Karunaratne for the remainder of the Test. Though the wicket is tailor made for spinners, having a pacer around to extract the benefit of the morning session is always a good thing in a Test match.

There has been much talk about the Indian top order - Cheteshwar Pujara’s resilience, Virat Kohli’s calculated aggression, and Ajinkya Rahane’s purposeful drives square off the wicket. But something that has missed the collective eye of many has been the way Indian lower middle order has contributed to the team’s total in the recent past. And today was another such day where they proved why India is the No.1 Test team of the world. Ravichandran Ashwin pierced gaps at cover that seemed non-existent with absolute disdain and quite fittingly, with a six over long-off, he asserted his place among the best all-rounders of the world. The Tamil Nadu off- spinner became the fourth fastest all-rounder - after Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, and Imran Khan - to score 2000 runs and claim 250 wickets in Tests. Jadeja, who now approaches the responsibility in the lower order like a proper batsman, delivered the goods yet again to take India to a commendable 622/9. Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya managed to get some quick runs and how can one forget the contribution of Wriddhiman Saha - whose fifty gave India some much-needed impetus in the middle overs.