In Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as India’s head coach, Men in Blue travelled to Sri Lanka for a white-ball series that featured three T20Is and as many ODI matches. India whitewashed the hosts in a three-match T20I series played in Pallekele last month under Suryakumar Yadav’s leadership, but it suffered a shocking defeat against Charith Asalanka’s men in the ODI series.
India failed to chase down the target of 231 runs in the series opener played at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on August 2, and the match ended in a tie. In the next two matches, Sri Lanka managed to get the better of India by 32 and 110 runs, respectively, to secure their first bilateral ODI series win over India since 1997.
It was a forgetful series for India, as despite the presence of batters like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant, India failed to deliver. Captain Rohit Sharma top-scored for India in all three matches, but after his wicket, India suffered a shocking middle-order collapse in all three matches.
Even though it was a tour to forget for Indian players and fans, former India batter Dinesh Karthik, during a Cricbuzz show, picked the biggest positives for India from the recently concluded series.
According to him, he was impressed by Indian team management’s decision to play a lot of all-rounders in the matches. Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar played in all three ODIs for India, and in addition to them, Riyan Parag also got a chance to make his debut in the series decider on August 7.
“The biggest positive is the fact that India played all-rounders and bravely attacked. So that is something I really like. No. 2 Riyan Parag, in his limited opportunities, is showing what he can do with the ball, which is again a small plus for us. Other than that, I think Rohit’s batting is itself. The way he starts in powerplay. He is making batting look too easy in the series. Batted beautifully. These were the positives for me from this series.”
In his first 50-over match for India, 22-year-old Parag, who earned his maiden India call-up after a super show in IPL 2024 for the Rajasthan Royals, picked up three wickets for 54 runs in nine overs.
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