Former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin criticised Team India’s casual attitude and approach in the second Test match against Sri Lanka. The match ended in a draw after Sri Lanka came up with a rearguard performance.
The home team had a lead of only 16 runs at the end of the fourth day and India needed four wickets to wrap up Sri Lankan innings. But the visitors could not close out the game as Sonal Dinusha played another brilliant knock of 133 runs.
Furthermore, he received support from Keshara Nuwantha and Lahiru Kumara, who batted for 150 and 90 balls respectively. Indian bowlers could not get much help from the surface and the bowling looked a bit toothless despite bowling to tailenders.
“I know, I understand, there was threat by the weather a bit. But somewhere I get this feeling that the mentality was like, ‘Chalo game khatam karo hum nikal jayenge’ (Let’s get this game over quick, they will be out and then we will go). Enforcing follow on is out of trend a little bit. Once you bowl 25 overs, your effectiveness will not be that much, a bowler is not a machine, even they get tired,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“I had a feeling that they took it slightly easier, because they had bowled almost 90 overs in the first innings as well. So, that is not an ordinary spell. If you had bowled them out for 50-60 overs, then I can understand, but that was not the case. So I feel that India took it lightly. So enforcing the follow on, I don’t think it was the right approach,” he added.
Ashwin questioned the team’s body language on the final day of the Test match and said the tourists were complacent in their approach.
“I accept that when there is threat of rain you have to take such a decision, but I have a feeling that a conversation might have happened and you could see from the body language that they thought Sri Lanka will be bowled out. Even batting for one, or one and a half sessions with a good run rate, bringing them back into the field could have made a difference,” Ashwin added.
India have slipped to a PCT of 51.52 in the WTC.
