It’s almost like a public holiday in all of this island nation. The results of the general elections were announced on Tuesday and the streets had a deserted look about them — no over-the-top celebrations on the street from victorious candidates till late in the day.
For Team India, it was back to the serious business of figuring out how to claw back into this three-match Test series. The team hit the ground running first thing on Tuesday morning at the P Sara Oval — the venue for Kumar Sangakkara’s final Test appearance. The Oval has a touch of history about it since this is the venue of Sri Lanka’s first-ever Test in 1982 and has seen the likes of Don Bradman bat on its turf back in 1948. It is also a ground where spinners have had as much success as pace bowlers — 272 wickets to 273.
There was some good news for the Indian camp as Murali Vijay appears to have recovered from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the first Test in Galle. The opener took part in a game of ‘footie’ and had a full nets sessions for almost an hour on Tuesday.
Vijay’s return to fitness will solve a lot of headaches for the team management as he will slot straight in to replace injured Shikhar Dhawan. The question mark hangs over the No. 3 slot and the team’s think thank appears to have opted to put their faith in Rohit Sharma, for this match at least.
Unlike Galle, where Cheteshwar Pujara was dispatched off to train with other players on the sidelines, team director Ravi Shastri kept a close watch on Pujara as well — batting in the nets alongside Rohit.
The topic of interest now will be the 22 yards at the P Sara Oval. With 48 hours to go for the Test to begin, there was still plenty of grass on the surface which might be trimmed off. However, the practice nets appear to have much more carry than the ones at Galle.
The battle for India is as much in the head as on the track. “We should have been a bit more aggressive in our batting and should have been more positive. There is nothing lacking in team morale and it’s the same before this match. We will go harder at them and put in double the effort in this Test. Whatever mistakes we made in the first Test, we will work and improve on them because we were playing Test cricket after a lengthy gap,” leg-spinner Amit Mishra assured on Tuesday.
The Haryana leggie, who was playing Test cricket after a gap of four years, looked impressive in both innings — picking up five wickets in the match. He was the stand-out bowler for India in the first outing along with Ravichandran Ashwin.
“I have worked on the feedback from different people that I am slow in the air. I was working hard on that. As you have seen, that work is showing in the pace and variations. In time it will be better,” the 32-year-old said.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli had a problem of plenty at Galle, juggling with five bowlers. As a result, at different stages of the match, Ashwin and Mishra were taken out of the attack after small spells.
“Our thinking is that we should not let the batsman settle. We plan to bowl four or five over spells to confuse the batsman, keep changing the bowler so that he doesn’t get comfortable. That is the idea,” Mishra said defending his skipper.
Finally, the leggie was also left to defend the Indian batsmen’s weakness against spin. “All our batsmen are among the best against spin. Whenever we bowl to them even at nets, they are comfortable. Sometimes, you lose one or two wickets under pressure but I don’t think that is because of any lack of skill against spin,” he claimed.