It is a little difficult to preview a contest which may not really happen.
Sri Lanka, providing the platform for Rohit Sharma to make his initiation as India’s Test captain, have offered him the most comfortable of questions so far and one would be very surprised if the Bengaluru Test, beginning on Saturday, offers any stiffer queries. For one, India have won everything in sight in the ongoing series, with the Sri Lankans not even coming close to making a challenge, so the mental make-up of either side would be pretty easy to read.
Even in Mohali, Sri Lanka were looking more to come out with a draw than actually challenge India, and that is unlikely to change here.
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The only point of interest here is how Sri Lanka fare under lights, with the day-night Test adding just that bit extra to the fare.
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Mohali was all about Ravindra Jadeja. While his 175 not out in the only Indian innings was laudable, his haul of 9 for 87 in the two Sri Lankan innings combined went on to prove that the track was not as docile as made out to be when India were batting.
That brings up two points, one of which would certainly be a worry against stiffer opposition.
The Indian batting, for all the runs they piled up, fell short. Why Jadeja, almost anyone could and many should have scored centuries here, big ones. But the fact that only one batsman did, that too lower down the order, tells us that the batting was good, without being great.
Two batsmen – Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant – could likely be pointed out to be beaten and bowled, by left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya and seamer Suranga Lakmal respectively, but the rest had little or not much to complain about.
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Especially the openers. Rohit played in T20 mode and perished in the same. Maybe the IPL is more on his mind than the current opposition. Mayank Agarwal, as is his wont, got settled and dismissed while the others in Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer and even Ravichandran Ashwin, had hundreds up for grabs.
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Not much of a blip in the current scenario, but could be telling against better opposition.
The bowling was made to look great by the Sri Lankan batting, but there was really nothing to take away from the bowlers. They stuck to their jobs and things went south for the islanders at an alarming pace.
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Mohali as also Kohli’s 100th Test, but the superstar surely deserved a better platform and opposition. That Test, or the series, won’t be remembered for long, and his landmark has already been consigned to the history books without an asterix next to his name.
That, one assumes, is the sad part of the series. The rest, will just be figures.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-capt), Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Hanuma Vihari, Jayant Yadav, Axar Patel, Priyank Panchal, K.S. Bharath, Saurabh Kumar.
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Dhananjaya de Silva (vice-capt), Charith Asalanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella, Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Praveen Jayawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Lahiru Kumara, Suranga Lakmal, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeffrey Vandersay.
