Sri Lanka tour of India 2022 News

Senior Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane is set to make a return for indoor nets training sessions for Mumbai.

The International Cricket Council has rated the pitch used for the India-Sri Lanka Test match in Bangalore as ‘below average’. The M Chinnaswamy stadium hosted Virat Kohli’s 101st Test match starting March 12. While Indian fans cheered for Virat Kohli to make a century - one that has been long awaited from the maestro - their hopes were shattered by a track that seemed to turn square from day one. Former Indian cricketer and match referee Javagal Srinath noted the same and stated that it was not an even contest between the bat and ball. “The pitch offered a lot of turn on the first day itself and though it improved with every session, in my view, it was not an even contest between bat and ball.” India escaped a grim fate after losing four quick wickets as the duo of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer held the innings together and counterattacked their way out of trouble. Eight wickets were taken by spinners in the first innings of the game with Lasith Embuldeniya, Praveen Jayawickrama and Dhananjaya de Silva running riot against the Indian batting. Once India were all out at 252 owing to a stunning 92 from Iyer, Sri Lanka found further troubles while coming into bat under the lights. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami presented an exceptional show reducing Sri Lanka to 85/6 at the end of day’s play. 16 wickets fell on day one, 9 off which came off spinners. The M Chinnaswamy stadium has incurred one demerit point based on the valuation of the match referee and now have to avoid further sanctions in the next five years. If the stadium accumulates 5 demerit points or more, they will be banned for hosting any matches for the next 12 months from the day of sanction.

On a tricky Chinnaswamy track that offered uneven bounce and turns, Shreyas Iyer laid the foundation with his 98-ball 92 in the first innings that helped India put up 252 on board. In the second innings, he scored a stable 67 that saw India set a target of 477 for Sri Lanka in the 4th innings of the game.

Rohit Sharma has applauded both the batting as well as keeping skills of the dynamic wicket-keeping batsman Rishabh Pant.

Rohit Sharma had a terrific start to his captaincy career after taking up the full time role as the team unleashed thorough dominance at home in the recent fixtures. Sharma led India for the first time in Tests and his side completed a whitewash 2-0 win against Sri Lanka. Talking about his captaincy, the right-handed batter insisted that he works on his own instincts but inputs from other senior lads in the side are always welcome. "There are a few senior members in the team who understand the game well and had their inputs as well. I have my reading of the game as well. But eventually you work on instinct and my captaincy philosophy is to take a call on that point which seems right to you, keeping in mind of where the game is going. I try to analyse these things on the ground," he said in the post-match conference. Rohit lavished praise on fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and lauded the way the right-arm pacer performed against Sri Lanka. "To come out and bowl like that in these kind of conditions shows how much skill and ability he has. Someone like Bumrah, he's never out of the game whatever the conditions are," he said. "To bowl on certain pitches, you need certain skill-sets. And he seems to bringing those skill-sets into the game depending on what sort of assistance he has from the pitch.” "In Mohali we saw a different sort of pitch and he was still effective. This was a different kind of pitch. it was turning and bouncing and everything was happening for spinners,” he added. India wrapped up the second encounter against Sri Lanka within three days after bundling them out for 208 while chasing 447 in the second innings in Bengaluru to win the match by 238 runs.

Rishabh Pant has said that his ability to keep evolving with time is the primary reason behind his continued improvement as an international cricketer over the last 15-16 months.