Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has shed light on Saransh Jain’s Test debut against Sri Lanka. Jain failed to impress on his debut despite plenty of left-handers in Sri Lanka’s batting line-up. The off-spinner returned with figures of 2-69 in the first innings after bowling 20.4 overs.

Jain bagged 1-98 in 37 overs he bowled in the second innings. The rookie spinner failed to get turn and bounce from the surface and his bowling clearly lacked extra zip.

Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day, “The debutant off-spinner looked an honest trier with little variety to trouble batters at this level. Sure, he could have been nervous considering that he was making his debut, yet there was no deception through the air and an over-reliance on the pitch for assistance.”

Gavaskar also questioned India’s bowling effort in the second innings after the drawn match.

“If they couldn’t dismiss the lower order batting on a pitch where there was some turn, it does make Indian cricket fans a bit nervous. There was a sameness to the bowling. On a pitch that got slower as the match progressed, the fast bowlers struggled to get the ball up towards the batters’ shoulders. Here, perhaps the extra pace and height of Gurnoor Brar may well have come in handy.”

The Little Master reckons India missed the services of Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI. Yadav was ruled out with an infection in the second Test.

“Kuldeep Yadav’s absence also did not help, as a good wrist spinner can get the lower-order batters out in a jiffy most of the time,” said Gavaskar (via the aforementioned source).

After the drawn Test, India slipped to 51.52 PCT in the WTC cycle.