An Overview of the Sri Lanka – India Test Series
Yet again, a Pink Ball Test has ended in two and a half days, with 16 wickets falling on the first day itself, raising questions whether these matches actually help to enhance spectator interest in Test Cricket, as they were originally meant to do. In fact, both Test Matches between India and Sri Lanka in this series ended in less than three days and generally proved to be very disappointing as contests. India won by a massive innings and 222 runs in the first Test at Mohali. And by 221 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, in the Day-Nighter. In a sad commentary on their batting performance, Sri Lanka passed 200 only once in the four innings that they played.
In the First Test, following on from their first innings total of 174 which was surpassed by Ravindra Jadeja alone, by an unbeaten 175 in an Indian first innings total of 574 for 8 declared, they managed only 178 in the second innings. Things got even worse in the first innings at Bangalore where they collapsed to 109 all out against the Indian seamers who took 7 wickets between them, with Bumrah picking up his first 5-wicket haul in India. They then went on to lose 7 wickets to the spinners in the second innings. Apart from Angelo Matthews and Niroshan Dickwella, the other nine batsmen managed to put together a dismal 45 runs amongst them in the first innings. In the second innings, a marvellous century by skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and an aggressive fifty by Kusal Mendis notwithstanding, the remaining nine batsmen again managed a marginally better 47 runs amongst them.
Sadly, that batting ineptitude has been the story of this disappointing series for Sri Lanka, which saw records galore, created by the Indians.
Achieving a huge personal milestone, Ravichandran Ashwin surpassed Kapil Dev’s 434 Test wickets to become India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests, after Anil Kumble who sits at the top of the heap with a monumental 619 Test wickets. His spin twin, Ravindra Jadeja became the first Indian cricketer in 69 years to score 175 runs or more in an innings and take a five-wicket innings haul in the same Test Match, after the great Vinoo Mankad last did it in 1952. Jadeja finished with 9 wickets in the match in an outstanding performance.
Rishabh Pant who has fallen in the 90s at the doorstep of well-deserved hundreds, five times already in his short Test career which otherwise has four Test Centuries, chipped in with a typically breezy 96. And Virat Kohli playing in his 100th Test fell for 45, unbelievably, exactly in the manner and score predicted by a fan. Kohli’s disappointing run of scores continued in the second test as well and it’s now been two years since he got a Test hundred.
For Sri Lanka, Pathum Nissanka had compiled a well-deserved unbeaten 61 in the first Test which added to his growing stature as a quality Test Batsman, but the other young batting hope, Charith Asalanka disappointed in this series and needs to get back to the drawing board. He got off the mark in spectacular fashion with a six in the second innings and followed it up with another maximum in the same over. For good measure, he hit two more boundaries in that over, making it 20 runs in the final over before tea, in what was to be his only hurrah in this series. It was too good to last and he perished soon after.
Niroshan Dickwella crafted a well-fought half-century in the same innings, but once again, failed to make it count with a hundred. For someone who has 19 Test Match fifties, surely that is a disturbing statistic. At the end of the match, the Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne was to say that his batsmen needed to bat longer and capitalize on the starts that they got.
Moving on to the pink ball Day-Night Test Match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, things didn’t get any better as a total of 16 wickets fell on the first day, the highest ever in a Day-night Test match thus far. The spinners did well for Sri Lanka, but conceded too many runs in the end as Shreyas Iyer once again played a superlative knock of 92 that took the match away from the opposition, after India were on the ropes at 148 for 6 at one stage. The Indian pacers Bumrah and Shami, breathed fire early on with the Pink Ball, as Sri Lanka crashed to 28 for 4, a position they never recovered from, folding up for a paltry 109. Angelo Mathews looked good but fell soon after a well-deserved fifty. As it turned out, that was to be the only substantial contribution in the Sri Lankan first innings.
For India, records continued to tumble in the second innings, as Rishabh Pant hit the fastest fifty in Test cricket by an Indian, reaching his half-century in 28 balls, two less than Kapil Dev against Pakistan, 40 years ago in 1982. Left Arm Spinners Embuldeniya and Praveen Jayawickrama picked up seven wickets between the two of them for the visitors in the second innings, to add to their 3 wickets each in the first innings. But they proved to be too expensive to really make a difference. 35- year old Suranga Lakmal playing his last Test match, bowled well and picked up a farewell wicket.
Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne compiled a brilliant Century in the Sri Lankan second innings and gave glimpses of what could have been for the visitors, if only they had applied themselves properly. But that was not to be and once his second-wicket stand of 97 with Kusal Mendis was broken, it was only a matter of time, as wickets tumbled in a heap. Karunaratne has carried forward his good form of last year when he scored a total of 902 Test runs at an average of 69.38, into 2022, but it was not enough for his side. Admittedly the pink ball moves and skids through under lights making batting difficult, but it was a very disappointing show from an international side, that has done well in white-ball contests of late.
A side that has a core of some very talented young players, but they just could not perform as a team in this series. There were injuries that put a number of key players out of action. There was no Wanindu Hasaranga, no Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera or Pathum Nissanka (in the second test). But even then, it was disappointing to see the side caving in without a fight. The team is obviously in a state of transition and once some of the more promising young players learn to be more consistent, Sri Lanka can surely look forward to many years of good cricket from them in International Cricket.
But this time around, they really could have made better use of the Indian conditions, which are almost similar to the ones back home. Some of them did, but it was far too sporadic and far too little to make a difference.
