Questions have been raised over Shubman Gill’s tactics and Indian players’ body language following the draw in the IND vs SL Test.
Sri Lanka escaped in the Colombo Test with a draw through an epic rearguard from Sonal Dinusha on day 5, helped by valiant defiance from the tailenders, as India failed to take all 10 wickets in Sri Lanka’s second innings while the hosts piled up a lead of over 200 runs.
India clinched the series 1-0 but returned home without a satisfactory performance in the IND vs SL 2nd Test. This once again exposed India’s frailties in the bowling attack in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, who missed the series due to an injury.
IND vs SL: Did Shubman Gill and co. take Sri Lanka for granted?
Former India batsman Mohammad Kaif opined that India perhaps took the opposition for granted when they required only four wickets to clean up Sri Lanka at the beginning of day 5. Kaif reckoned India missed the presence of someone like Virat Kohli on the field.
Kaif said on his YouTube channel,
“Playing Test cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea, boss. It is a very long game, and you have to keep bowling continuously. I felt that if someone like Virat Kohli had been playing this match, he would have been constantly shouting and keeping his team switched on.
“At times, I felt we took things for granted, thinking, ‘Just keep bowling, it will happen. The ball is turning so much, it will happen on its own.’”
India encountered a wall in the form of Sonal Dinusha in this series. After making scores of 100 & 84 in the first Test in Galle, Dinusha registered twin centuries in Colombo. In Sri Lanka’s second innings, the left-hander batted for 420 minutes, i.e., 7 hours, to deny the Indian bowlers.
Kaif felt that the energy level of the Indian players wasn’t high enough and possibly needed an intervention from a strong-headed character like Kohli used to do when India needed desperate breakthroughs.
“We created very few things ourselves. Our energy levels were also very low. That is why I am saying, if Virat Kohli had been playing this Test match, the result would have been different.
“The reason is that he would have been telling everyone, ‘Come on, Sarfaraz, come on, Jaiswal,’ and he would have gone after Sonal as well. Who were we getting into confrontations with? We were getting into confrontations with Kumara,” Kaif added.
How can India reach the ICC WTC final?
With the 1-0 result in the two-Test series, India took away 16 points from the 24 available points and remained in the 5th spot in the ICC WTC points table.
India’s chances of reaching the ICC WTC final 2027 dimmed further after drawing the Colombo Test. India have two more Test series left in this cycle: 2 Tests in New Zealand in November and 5 Tests in the BGT 2027 against Australia at home in January-February.
India need to win six of their remaining seven Tests to secure a berth in the ICC WTC final; losing more than one Test match could prove to be detrimental for Gill’s contingent.
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