I don’t think we were brave enough throughout the series – Rohit Sharma

Mohammed Siraj has enjoyed some of his best times in international cricket against Sri Lanka. The tour of 2024 wasn’t among them though. For as well as he bowled in conditions not best suited for pace bowling, he returned only three wickets in as many games – exactly the number of times he aggressively stared down at the opposition batters unprovoked. Given the combined contribution of the Indian pace attack in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, the charged-in aggression probably didn’t fit in too well.

It wasn’t too different for Asitha Fernando either though, the one-man pace attack for Sri Lanka, who had reserved his version of the ‘fast bowler’s unprovoked aggression’ for Virat Kohli. For the 27-year-old who had featured in only seven ODIs before the series, and managed to find a place so easily in the XI at the back of six other frontline pacers getting ruled out due to injury, there was probably a victory to show in the end.

Irrespective of the brave front of machoism that was showcased by the pacers, eventually the spotlight of the series was stolen by their lesser-aggressive bowling partners – the spinners, who combined to bag 44 wickets across three games. The trial by spin in Colombo was won by Sri Lanka yet again on Wednesday – this time more emphatically – as they distanced themselves from India by 110 runs.

India’s struggles in the series which were largely prominent while batting in the middle overs in the first two games, had advanced to the powerplay by the time it reached the last game of the series. Their chase had shut shop by the time it even reached the middle phase on Wednesday. The spin struggle, instead of being ironed out during the two-day rest, only accentuated with as many as eight batters getting dismissed either legbefore, bowled or stumped. The struggle to even put bat to ball resulted in 21 of the 27 dismissals that were effected against spin, screamed loud enough for the Indian captain to admit “We all know what the issues are, no point digging deep.”

Across all three games, there was only one noteworthy batter – Rohit Sharma, who not only top-scored for India in all three games but also presented the only real threat on behalf of the visiting side. A big reason for that was his advantage of facing the spinners with the hard ball and field restrictions on, which allowed him to effectively play on the up and take them apart in the Powerplay. As the ball got softer and started turning, the pitch slowed down and the field restrictions were lifted, the limitations of the Indian batters to play in such conditions were also exposed.

“It is important to take on the bowlers on such pitches, where the ball is turning and it is tough to score,” Rohit assessed following India’s loss in the third ODI. “It is important to be a bit brave. I don’t think we were brave enough throughout the series to put them under a little bit of pressure. That’s why we were a bit left lagging behind slightly.”

The recurring issue of the Indian batter’s inability to counter spin in the first two ODIs had prompted a batters’ meeting ahead of the game but clearly didn’t seem too productive as the issues repeated themselves in the final contest of the tour.

“We all know where we are erring, what we need to improve on. Individually, we have spoken to a lot of players on this topic, that they will get a lot more opportunities to play spin in these conditions,” he said. “On these wickets, where the pitch is slow, where some balls are turning and some are not, you have to go in with a gameplan.

“At the same time, you also need to play your shots. If you think you will defend all six balls, it may not be possible on such a pitch. All in all, as far as the team is concerned, and how I look at it, we need to admit where we have made mistakes, we didn’t dominate against spin. On such wickets, you need to dominate a bit and the Sri Lankan spinners had consistently kept us under pressure in all three games.

“Somewhere, we need to think about what we can do, which players should be given opportunities on such wickets. However, when you’re playing on such challenging pitches, it is also important to have consistency in your team selection. If you give players only one or two opportunities, it isn’t easy for them to manage such situations. We tried. We even wanted to try out a few players. It has been a poor series for us, we accept it. We didn’t play good cricket and that’s why we have the result that we have today.”

Much of Indian batters’ concerns stemmed from their unwillingness to use their feet against the spinners, an attribute that has held many former players from the country in good stead while countering spin. With spin-friendly tracks being rare in international cricket in modern times, have players who are bred on slow surfaces through their formative years also struggling to combat spin?

“Playing spin against slow bowlers on slow pitches shouldn’t be the excuse for us,” he said. “We all play on these kinds of pitches. It is about having game plans and being clear with your plans. It comes down to individual plans. Everyone needs to understand that this is my plan and this is how I am going to play.

“If the pitch suits your plan, take them on. If it doesn’t, then what are the options? Come down the track, push for singles, all the basics of batsmanship on slow surfaces. We have grown up on slow pitches. Pitches have turned and been slow. It is about having the own plan and believing that plan is good enough to come out on top on pitches like that.”

But he added, “All these guys have come here playing so much cricket. All of a sudden to tell them to do things a little differently… to play the shot that they are not comfortable with is not ideal. We’ve had these issues in the past as well where the ball has spun a little bit, the wicket has been a bit slow. We had issues with keeping the tempo of the game.

“That’s why I have said, it’s all about individual plans, how they want to take the bowlers on, what are the shots they want to play. It starts with your training. When you get your sessions, you try and work through that I can see the guys are working hard in the nets whenever we get the opportunity to train. I don’t see there being a lack of effort when we want to try and play different shots. Some of these guys played sweep, reverse sweep, paddle as well. That’s not the nature of their batsmanship. They are trying as well.

“But we have to be clear with how we want to play and how to keep the momentum towards us while playing on pitches like these. We fell short thrice. Even the game that ended in a tie, we should’ve finished that game. In the last two games we played, we obviously knew where the problems were.

“We have to talk about it, we have to let the players know what we want. If we have to be a little different in choosing the personnel, we have to do that unfortunately. We will try and see how we can be a good team in all kinds of conditions, not just on good pitches or seaming pitches, but also on pitches that turn a bit. We have to see what we have to do as a team, as a batting unit.

“I don’t want to be critical because whenever I have asked them to do different things, they have done that. Things like this happen. It won’t be ideal to look deep into this. It’s important to stay calm and give them confidence, give them the understanding that this is what is required. Hopefully, if we come up against conditions like this, they have better plans against spinners.”

On the contrary, the Indian spinners picked only 17 wickets across three games, 10 fewer than their counterparts. While it had to do as much with how the host bowlers were able to exploit the familiar conditions, it also had to do a fair bit with how the Sri Lankan batters countered a similar challenge.

Highlighting how differently the opposition approached their batting, Rohit said, “They were consistent with sweeps, taking their chances. Not a lot of runs were scored down the ground. They didn’t use the feet as much as we expected. It was about using sweeps and piercing that deep square leg and midwicket field. That is something we failed to do as a batting unit. We didn’t play enough sweeps, reverse sweeps or paddle and use our feet too much. That was the difference.

“(Kusal) Mendis and (Avishka) Fernando, they got a lot of runs square off the wicket. They were using the turn, going down the track and sweeping making the fielder move left and right. They were smart with how they batted and we were not.”

Rohit’s first ODI assignment following India’s run to the World Cup final last year has ended on a winless note, handing Sri Lanka their first series win in 27 years against India in the 50-over format. A series where they would’ve looked to find a few answers has ended with them being left with more questions instead. Even as India are unlikely to play limited-overs cricket in similar conditions any time in the near future, with only three ODIs scheduled hereafter, there is still ample need to find a few fixes.