India’s top order made to think
Whenever India have dominated in the sub-continent, the top-order batsmen have had a big say. And India’s record chasing a target has only improved since skipper Virat Kohli turned a master at that job.
The visitors have been a cut above the struggling Sri Lankan team on this tour, having swept to victory in the Test series and taken an unassailable lead in the ODI series with two games left to play. However it has turned into a testing affair when India travel overseas and play on bouncier pitches against bowlers willing to hit the deck.
India go into the last two ODIs and a one-off T20 confident and ready to experiment with combinations and roles given to players. However, the Sri Lankan bowlers have left the Indian think tank with extra planning to do after asking questions in the second and third games.
In the second ODI, it was spinner Akila Dananjaya’s six-wicket haul that left India in disarray. He again claimed two wickets in three deliveries to force India into another fight back in the third ODI.
On both occasions, MS Dhoni calmly provided a perfect support role, guiding Bhuvneshwar Kumar to an unbeaten half-century on Thursday and then staying on with Rohit Sharma, who hit a sublime 124 not out, to get the job done on Sunday.
Although Sri Lanka picked three specialist quicks, which led to skipper Upul Tharanga getting suspended due to slow over-rate, youngster Vishwa Fernando impressed with his pace and accuracy along with Dushmanta Chameera.
However, India wriggled out in both matches because the bowlers had restricted Sri Lanka to modest totals. Chasing a bigger target would have posed a challenge for India.
Asking KL Rahul to bat at No 4 may be revisited. In the second ODI, he was one of the three batsmen cleaned up by Akila Dananjaya, missing his googly. In the third on Sunday, it was an anxious heave to midwicket in a bid to quickly dominate the spinner that led to his dismissal.
The middle-order will pose the most questions. Kohli pointed out that Ajinkya Rahane, yet to play in this series, prefers to open. But India may have to see whether to stick with Kedar Jadhav, who provides breakthroughs with his off-spin but cannot be expected to deliver with his all-out aggressive batting.