Colombo: Virat Kohli and his men played clinical cricket in the first test against Sri Lanka to beat the hosts by a thumping 304-run margin in Galle. For the Indians everything went right in the game and they would like to carry it forward in the second test match in Colombo.
However the hosts had a pretty tough time in the field both with the bat and ball in Galle. Other than Nuwan Pradeep, no other bowler had could tackle the mighty Indian batting as they scored a huge 600 in the first innings which pushed the Sri Lankans on the backfoot from where they never really recovered.
The Indians backed it up with some fine bowling performances as the pacers did the job in the first innings while the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja did the damage in the second that handed the visitors their greatest overseas victory in terms of runs.
Ahead of the Colombo Test, the Sri Lankan squad would be boosted by the return of the newly appointed Test skipper Dinesh Chandimal who had missed the first test due to illness. His return would undoubtedly be a big boost to the Sri Lankan batting which looked hapless in both the innings in Galle.
For India, KL Rahul would be coming into the side and he is most likely to replace Abhinav Mukund who had played a solid 81 run knock in the second innings. Shikhar Dhawan who was named as the man of the match is likely to be retained in the playing XI.
Kohli would definitely be upbeat about his team’s chances in the second test. One of India’s batting stars Cheteshwar Pujara is also set to play his 50th Test match when both these sides meet in Colombo and the right-handed batsman is just 34 runs shy of 4000 Test runs. The bowling attack is likely to be same and it is skipper Kohli whether Kuldeep Yadav is picked for tomorrow’s game if the pitch assists spinners.
Nonetheless, the Indians would definitely be confident about their chances of gaining an unassailable 2-0 lead and it would indeed require a herculean effort from the hosts if they are to pull out a win to level the series.