India succumbed to their first ODI series loss against Sri Lanka in 27 years. The last time the Lankans claimed an ODI series victory over their Asian neighbors was in 1997. It is no surprise then that Sanath Jayasuriya, who was a key member of that team in 1997, is the interim head coach of the current Sri Lankan team.
The surprise in this series was the struggles of the Indian batters against the Sri Lankan spinners. India were given targets of 231, 241, and 249 in this series. The first match ended in a tie, while India lost the next two games by 32 runs and 110 runs, respectively.
27 out of India’s 30 wickets fell to the Lankan spinners, who wrecked havoc over the Indian middle-order once they dismissed India skipper and opener Rohit Sharma.
With nothing to show in the ODI series, there were plenty of Indian players who performed disappointingly, and this list includes a few big names.
5 Indian players who disappointed the most in the IND vs SL ODI series:
Virat Kohli
The biggest name on this list is Virat Kohli. While both Rohit and Kohli had not played an ODI since the World Cup 2023 final, the opener was in sound touch in this series, but the India number 3 struggled haplessly.
Kohli looked simply out of sorts against the Sri Lankan spinners. He was dismissed in all three games by the Lankan spinners, and all three times he got out lbw. Kohli was dismissed lbw both on the back foot and front foot and failed to get on top of the spinners.
He managed a total of 58 runs in three innings.
Shreyas Iyer
Iyer was coming into this series on the back of a successful IPL campaign but also on the back of a strife with the BCCI, which saw him getting dropped from the central contracts.
Match-winning performances in this series would have been an apt reply, but he managed to score only 38 runs across his three innings. It also didn’t help him that the new head coach, Gautam Gambhir, promoted other batters—left-handers—over Iyer, who had cemented his spot at the number four position during last year’s World Cup.
Gambhir’s baffling shuffling of the batting order—to keep a left-hander in the middle—meant Iyer got pushed down in the order and not once batted at his preferred position of number four.
Mohammed Siraj
India would also be disappointed with the returns of Mohammed Siraj in this series: 3 wickets in 3 matches and an economy of 6.28. In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, Siraj failed to perform like the leader of the pace attack. In the third ODI, he was smashed for 78 runs in 9 overs.
KL Rahul
Rahul started the series over Rishabh Pant as the keeper-batter but was dropped after two games. He managed scores of 31 and 0 and had a poor strike rate of 68.
Shubman Gill
Young opener Shubman Gill was elevated to the vice- captain role ahead of this tour. However, he had a forgettable ODI series, and with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad breathing under his neck, Gill might start to feel some jitters about his place in the ODI side as he hasn’t really performed well in this format since the World Cup last year.
In this series, he barely looked in touch, scoring only 57 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 61. He needed to help Rohit by playing attacking cricket and making the best use of the powerplay field restrictions and the hard new ball, which he failed to do.
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