The Indian team is going to Sri Lanka for a 2-match test series next month. The first match of this series will be played in Galle from 23rd August. The second match will be hosted by the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) ground of Colombo. Team India is going to Sri Lanka to play a Test series after 9 years. On its last tour of Sri Lanka in 2017, it won the 3-match Test series 3-0. Earlier in 2015, the Indian team had defeated the Sri Lankan team 2-1 at home. This was the team’s first full Test series under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, in which he told the world how the coming year was going to be for Indian cricket.
The tour started with a defeat
The 2015 tour started in Galle. The Indian team, which came with 5 bowlers, bundled out Sri Lanka’s first innings for 183. Ravichandran Ashwin took 6 wickets. In reply, Shikhar Dhawan (134) and Kohli (103) played century innings, due to which Team India scored 375 runs in its first innings and took a huge lead of 192 runs. After this, Ashwin and Amit Mishra sent the Sri Lankan opening pair to the pavilion in the first two overs. At the end of the second day’s play, Sri Lanka’s score was 5/2. Kumar Sangakkara was at the crease along with night-watchman Dhammika Prasad.
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India dismissed Dhammika in the very first over of the third over, reducing Sri Lanka’s score to 5 runs at the loss of 3 wickets. Sangakkara (40) and captain Angelo Mathews (39) made a comeback for Sri Lanka by making a partnership of 87 runs for the fourth wicket but both became victims of Ashwin and Amit Mishra in consecutive overs. Half of the Sri Lankan team was reduced to 100 runs and the Indian team seemed to be winning by an innings margin but Dinesh Chandimal turned the tables.
Chandimal played a memorable inning of 162 runs in 169 balls, taking Sri Lanka to the score of 367 runs. Lahiru Thirimane (44) and Jehan Mubarak (49 runs) also made important contributions. India got the target of 176 runs, which did not seem that difficult but Rangana Herath (7 wickets) wreaked such havoc that Team India was all out at 112. The team captained by Kohli lost the match by 63 runs after coming in a winning position.
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India’s strong comeback
Team India had not won any Test series in Sri Lanka since 1993. After the defeat in the Galle Test, it was believed that the Indian team would once again return empty handed from Sri Lanka. This is because Team India could not win any Test series away from home after falling 0-1. However, Kohli and company had different intentions. India made a strong comeback in the series by winning the second Test by 278 runs at the P Sara Oval in Colombo. This was also Sangakkara’s farewell test.
Now the third and decisive match of the series was to be played on SSC Ground. After being invited to bat first, India scored 312 runs thanks to the century of Cheteshwar Pujara (145 not out). After this, the bowlers under the leadership of Ishant Sharma (5 wickets) did wonders and bundled out Sri Lanka’s first innings at 201. Team India, after taking a strong lead of 111 runs, scored 274 runs in its second innings and set a difficult target of 386 runs for Sri Lanka, in response to which the host team collapsed for 268 runs. The Indian team won the match by 117 runs and captured the series 2-1.
Ashwin took maximum 21 wickets in the series. He was awarded the Player of the Series award. Kohli (233) was the highest run-scorer for India. However, his aggressive captaincy proved to be a bigger factor than runs. Even after falling behind in the series, he stuck to his decision of going with 5 bowlers and showed that the new team India is going to rule world cricket.
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