In a series where skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli staged their returns, India suffered three successive batting collapses. Before the 2 joined, the Men in Blue completed a whitewash against the Lankan Lions in the 3-match T20I series.

 Reflecting on India’s performances in the Sri Lanka tour, Uthappa vouched for Gambhir’s leadership ability.

“He’s always been someone who thrives under pressure and has consistently sought out big stages to deliver. As far as I’m concerned, I see the same qualities in him as a leader within this group,” Uthappa told The Times of India.

“He (Gambhir) will seek out major opportunities and strive to seize them. As a leader, I can vouch for his ability to create an environment that enables people to thrive. He is that kind of leader – more than just a great captain, he’s also an excellent tactician and an exceptional leader of people. He fosters a culture within the group that encourages success. Gautam Gambhir is a leader who provides security to his players, and we have seen that in action,” Uthappa added.

After suffering an unexpected defeat to Sri Lanka in the ODI series, India will now look to improve in the upcoming 2-match Test and 3-match T20I series against Bangladesh set to commence from September 19.

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Kohli scored 24 runs in the first match and then scored 14 and 20 runs in the next two matches bringing his total for the series to only 58 runs. There were high expectations from Kohli in the ODI, but he completely failed to deliver and was trapped in front of the wickets in all three matches.

Due to his disappointing performances against Sri Lanka, Kohli received a lot of criticism by fans on social media. However, now his former Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate, Dinesh Karthik has come up to defend him by saying that it was tough to bat in the Sri Lankan conditions.

“It’s been a tough pitch to play spin in this series, let’s admit that first. Be it Virat Kohli, be it Rohit Sharma, or be it anyone else. With the slightly semi-new ball between overs about 8 to 30, it’s been hard work. It’s nothing to worry about. Not too many pitches work that way, but it’s been a tough pitch to play spinners. I’m not going to defend Virat Kohli here, but I can tell you that playing spin was very hard,” Karthik said on a Cricbuzz show.

Kohli had a chance to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record and become the fastest batter in the world to score 14,000 runs in ODIs during the series, however he failed to achieve this objective and will now have to wait till January 2025 to cross the mark.

The post “Not going to defend Virat Kohli”: Dinesh Karthik on star batter’s disappointing show in SL series appeared first on Cricket Country.

The Indian team will tackle their first obstacle in the form of Bangladesh who will be touring India for 2 Test matches and 3 T20Is. The Test series will begin from September 19 and the T20I series will commence from October 6.

After the Bangladesh series, New Zealand will be touring India for a 3-match Test series starting from October 16. Then, the Men in Blue will travel to South Africa for a 4-match T20I series, starting on November 8.

India’s biggest challenge will definitely come in the form of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The first game of the five-match Test series will be played in Perth from November 22 and the series’ final Test will be played on January 3, 2025.

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Former Pakistani cricketer Tanvir has recently gained attention as because of his merciless criticism of Harbhajan Singh and the Indian cricket team, more specifically, regarding the refusal to travel to Pakistan for upcoming ICC Champions Trophy. He keeps on dropping comments on Indian team, just to keep being on the spotlight. He targeted team India again, following the defeat to Sri Lanka in the ODI series.

“Next time india walon ko bolain gay achi team lay kar Ana (From next time we tell India to bring better team):, he posted on X.

“India team ka ODI series harney ka gift Gautam ghambir (A gift for losing the ODI Series Gautam Gambhir)”, he posted soon after the match ended.

In all three ODIs, Indian batters struggled with a repeating issue. Even after the strong start given by Rohit Sharma, other batters just could not live up to the expectations. India failed to chase targets which were less than 250 in each match. In the last ODI, Sri Lanka set a target of 249, then bowled out India for just 138.

In the Sri Lanka tour, India grabbed a 3-0 victory in the T20I series under leadership of Suryakumar Yadav, while in the ODI series, lost by 2-0 with first match ending up as a tie.

The post Ex-Pakistan Pacer Taunts Gautam Gambhir after India’s series defeat to Sri Lanka appeared first on Cricket Country.

Thanks to the victory Sri Lanka registered their first series win against India in 27 years. Despite suffering a rare series loss against the Lankan Lions, the Indian skipper ruled out any talks of complacency within the team.

“I don’t think it is a concern. But it is something we have to look at individually and as a gameplan. It is a joke, when you are playing for India there is never going to be complacency. When I am captain there is no chance of complacency. But you have to give credit to good cricket. Sri Lanka played better than us. We looked at the conditions and went with the combinations, there also guys who need to be looked at and hence the changes,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation.

“There are lot of areas we need to look at rather than the positives. These things happen, series lost is not the end of the world, you will lose an odd series here and there but it is about how you come back after the loss,” said Rohit Sharma in the post-match presentation,” he added.

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The opening pair of Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando finally got going and formed a big opening stand. Both hit some brilliant shots and were looking in great form. Axar Patel came to India’s rescue in the 20th over as he broke the 89-run stand and dismissed Nissanka on 45. However, Fernando showed no signs of stopping and went on to score his first half-century of the series.

The next batter, Kusal Mendis also played some great strokes and formed a big stand with Fernando who was already smashing the Indian bowlers in every corner of the stadium. The latter looked set to score a century however, his plans were shattered by debutant Riyan Parag who dismissed him for 96 in the 36th over to end the 82-run stand between Fernando and Mendis. Sri Lanka was 171/2 and was in quite a strong position at that time. But, from that point on, the wickets started to tumble.

The likes of Charith Asalanka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Janith Liyanage and Dunith Wellalage were all dismissed in quick succession It looked as if the hosts will fall short of the 240-run mark, but the important stand of 36 runs between Kusal and Kamindu Mendis carried them to a total of 248/7 after 50 overs. Parag was surprisingly India’s best bowler as he took 3 wickets and gave away 54 runs in 9 overs.

In reply, India got off to an explosive start thanks to skipper Rohit Sharma. However, they ended up losing their first wicket in the 5th over as Asitha Fernando cleaned up Gill for only 6 runs. Star batters, Rohit and Virat Kohli tried forming a big partnership but, Wellalage also got Rohit’s wicket in the 8th over to reduce India to 53/2 after 7.1 overs. After Rohit fell, the Indian team started falling like a house of cards.

The Sri Lankan spinners yet again turned out to be a big problem for the Indian batters as Maheesh Theekshana dismissed Pant before Wellalage took the big wicket of Kohli. Washington Sundar’s 30 runs would prove to be the second-highest individual score for the Indian team as the rest of the batters (except for Parag) couldn’t even make it to double figures. Wellalage ended up taking a 5-wicket haul while last match’s hero, Jeffrey Vandersay ended up taking 2 wickets and Theekshana took another 2 wickets as India was dismissed for only 138 runs in 26.1 overs.

Sri Lanka ended up winning the match by 110 runs and with this victory, sealed the ODI series by 2-0. This defeat marked a disappointing start to Gautam Gambhir’s era as India head coach and they will definitely be looking to improve their ODI form in future matches as there isn’t a long time left for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 either. The defeat also saw India lose a bilateral series against Sri Lanka for the first time in 27 years.

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The BCCI shared a video on their official X handle in which interim bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule can be heard saying, “Well I think the batters and overall as a unit, the bowlers as well, certain areas in which we need to be working on, has been addressed and I think that’s what they were trying to implement, certain pattern of bowling which has been done to our batters, we’re trying to see how we can match that and find a solution.”

A loss in the series would turn out to be a big shock for the recently recruited Gautam Gambhir-led coaching staff who took over a team that had played really well in the ODI format the previous year. Despite their success in the T20I series, they wouldn’t want to end the Sri Lankan tour on a negative note.

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“It is an opportunity for us to go out there and put our hands up and win those critical situations. Obviously with the big tournaments coming up, we will be in similar situations and it will be important to find ways as to what we can do to win those critical situations especially in similar conditions against quality spin attack,” Washington Sundar told the reporters.

“I think whatever we have done in this series so far, we will take that as a learning, obviously try and move ahead and win the game tomorrow in all aspects of the game,” he added.

“We are quality players of spin. We’ve always played in these kinds of wickets, even at home, in Test matches, and in different formats. Even domestic cricket, we play a lot of games in such wickets. And we know a lot of our players have done really well, especially in the middle order, batting against spin. So it’s just a matter of finding a way, their own individual self and trying to get the job done,” he further added.

The post “Move ahead and win…”: Washington Sundar ahead of series decider against Sri Lanka appeared first on Cricket Country.

Sri Lanka’s win in the second ODI resulted in them avoiding defeat in a bilateral series against India for the first time in 27 years. Even if India manages to win in the 3rd ODI, they will only be able to tie the series. However, a tie would definitely suit the Men in Blue better than a defeat in the series.

Sri Lanka vs India pitch report

The pitch at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo generally assists the spinners. It is worth noting that in the second ODI, 15 out of 19 wickets were taken by spinners with Jeffrey Vandersay bowling the spell of his life and taking 6 wickets.

Sri Lanka vs India weather report

The weather at Colombo is expected to be cloudy and there are high chances that rain will interrupt the match.

Sri Lanka vs India expected playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis (wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka (c), Kamindu Mendis, Janith Liyanage, Dunith Wellalage, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Asitha Fernando

Sri Lanka vs India match prediction: India to win the match

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