India lost the series 0-2, losing the last ODI against Sri Lanka by a humiliating 110 runs. The ODI World Cup 2023 finalists altered their batting order in every match, which most likely backfired and cost them the series. On the other hand, captain Rohit Sharma (37), who stated that the batters lost wickets because they overused their feet and didn’t play enough sweeps against spinners, had a different opinion.
Spinner Jeffrey Vandersay took six wickets in the second ODI to dominate the Indian batting line; in the third match, he took two wickets, while 21-year-old Dunith Wellalage took five. According to Rohit, the difference was that the visitors battled against spin throughout the series and were never able to demonstrate dominance.
Rohit gave the examples of Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis to illustrate his point, saying that while the Indian players weren’t as adept at batting, they did score a lot of runs on the squares.
While praising the Lankan spinners for their consistent ball-controlling performance throughout the series, he also admitted the errors made by his men.
They took their risks and consistently made sweeps. Runs scored via the ground were few in number. We expected them to utilise the feet more, but they didn’t. The strategy involved employing sweeps to pierce the deep square leg and midwicket field. As a batting team, we did not succeed in doing that. We played too many reverse sweeps, paddle sweeps, and sweeps, and we utilised our feet excessively. That made a difference, according to a comment from Rohit.
“Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis scored a lot of runs square of the wicket today. They were forcing the fielder to move left and right by sweeping and exploiting the turn. We weren’t as cunning with their batting technique as they were. Overall, we have to own up to our faults and acknowledge that we were not able to dominate against spin. In all three games, the Sri Lankan spinners had kept us under constant strain, and on such tracks, you have to dominate a little bit,” he continued.
Also Read: In India’s ODI series vs Sri Lanka, Aakash Chopra noticed there was a lack of ruthlessness and a sense of complacency in their bowling
India’s next match against England is the Champions Trophy, which is scheduled for February and March. Before then, the two teams will play three more ODIs.
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