In Gautam Gambhir’s initial role as India’s head coach, the Indian cricket team went to Sri Lanka for a series of limited-overs matches, including three T20 games and three one-day internationals (ODIs). India completely dominated the hosts in the T20 series held in Pallekele last month, led by Suryakumar Yadav, but faced an unexpected loss in the ODI series against Charith Asalanka’s team.
India couldn’t reach the target of 231 runs in the first ODI at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on August 2, and the game resulted in a tie. In the following two matches, Sri Lanka outperformed India by 32 and 110 runs, respectively, achieving their first bilateral ODI series victory over India since 1997.
India had a disappointing series, even with strong batters like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant. Captain Rohit Sharma scored the highest for India in all three games, but once he was out, India’s middle order struggled badly in each match.
Despite the tough tour for Indian players and supporters, former player Dinesh Karthik, on a Cricbuzz show, highlighted the main positives for India from the recently finished series.
He said that he was really impressed with the Indian team’s choice to use many players who can both bat and bowl in the games. Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar played in all three one-day matches for India. Besides them, Riyan Parag also got a chance to play his first game in the final match on August 7.
“The best part is that India used players who can do both batting and bowling and they played aggressively. That’s something I really liked. Number 2, Riyan Parag, even though he didn’t get many chances, showed what he can do with the ball, which is a good thing for us. Apart from that, I think Rohit’s batting is amazing. The way he starts in the first part of the game. He makes batting look very easy in this series. He played beautifully. These were the good things for me from this series.”
In his first 50-over game for India, 22-year-old Parag, who got his first chance to play for India after a great performance in the IPL 2024 for the Rajasthan Royals, took three wickets and gave away 54 runs in nine overs.
