Indian Cricketing Machismo SPEWS OUT in the Field at Khetharama … As They Lose Comprehensively-by Andrew Fidel Fernando

Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcicinfo, 8 August 2024, where the title runs “Is this for real? Sri Lanka’s rare glory leaves India shaken” ….. while his report here has had highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The visitors were left with plenty to ponder after their batting struggled in spin-friendly conditions.

Avishka Fernando cover drives…. & Wellalage celebrates one of his wickets

Mohammed Siraj is fired up.

Halfway through his seventh over, the 39th of the innings, he strides down the pitch and sprays a few angry words at Kusal Mendis, who responds in kind. In his next over, Siraj bowls a ball to Janith Liyanage that the batter drives back at him. Siraj picks the ball up in his follow through, and flings it at the stumps, and misses. The batter would have been back safely in any case.

In the background of that shy at the stump is Virat Kohli, applauding the bowler’s aggression. Through the course of these middle overs, Kohli has gone through some big emotions of his own. He’s celebrated wickets with more verve than the bowlers and yelled at exiting batters, appealed so vociferously it felt like his lungs might come flying out of his body. He’s backed up every move of the bowlers like they were boxers at the Olympics and he was their coach in the corner.

At one point he fields the ball at short mid on and throws at the stumps but hits the pad of Charith Asalanka. The batter had not only never seriously attempted a run, he’s so far home he’s fallen asleep in front of a Netflix documentary.

But none of this is massively out of the ordinary. We have seen Siraj this fired up before. For Kohli, this is like a six out of 10 on the macho-flailing scale.

But this is what is truly surprising. Kohli has played many matches against Sri Lanka in which he has found no need to reach into the angrier portions of his heart. Siraj has usually had a very high smile-to-grimace ratio when facing this opposition.

And now all this aggression has been accessed for Sri Lanka? Wow. Should they be blushing? Is this for real?

Before this series, Sri Lanka had played 19 ODIs against India since the start of 2015, and lost 16 of those games. The most recent memories were of being bowled out for 55 at the Wankhede in the World Cup and being blasted out for 50 in the Asia Cup final last year, when Siraj took 6 for 21 at this very venue and was inflicting so much trauma it seemed more appropriate for India’s players to cuddle Sri Lanka’s batters rather than cuss at them.

But through the course of this ODI series, this Sri Lanka team, ranked seventh in ODIs, who finished ninth in last year’s World Cup and as such have not qualified for the Champions Trophy, who struggle to get their seam bowlers on the field, and who haven’t made a global-tournament semi-final in 10 years, has asked some serious questions of an India side whose ambitions are world domination.

A quick rundown of those questions:

Are India a little shaky on big-turning tracks, given the results in their last four ODIs in Asia? This series was three matches long. This was their fourth match back.

Are they over-reliant on Jasprit Bumrah at the death? He was rested for this series, but Sri Lanka’s lower-middle order and lower order produced strong showings and reached totals that proved to be beyond India’s batters.

Should they keep persisting with floating batters in the middle overs, prioritising left-right combinations over more strongly-defined roles for each batter?

Are they better off with predictable KL Rahul or mad genius Rishabh Pant?

This is not an exhaustive list of questions. But for Sri Lanka the list is so much shorter, because for a team not playing next year’s Champions Trophy so little beyond the present matters, in ODIs. Their only worry is whether they can be competitive in anything other than extremely spin-friendly conditions. Almost everyone in Sri Lankan cricket – players, administrators, coaches, support staff, fans – has this question in mind right now. But they will happily take Siraj being this angry at their batters. They will take Kohli being this expressive.

And they should take captain Asalanka being realistic.When asked whether he took pride in achieving a bilateral series victory over India that had eluded even greats of the Sri Lankan team such as Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Tillakaratne Dilshan and others, he said: “I don’t think we’re at the level of those players. I think we have the potential, but at ICC tournaments those players took us very far. That’s how we were able to have global recognition. I don’t think we can be equals to those players at the moment. But as a captain I’m happy we were able to defeat a team as good as this. This is a process. We have some talented players. If we manage them and look after them, we can go far.”

Sri Lanka have more modest ODI goals now than they have had in roughly 25 years. India are aiming higher than ever. Right now, it’s enough to just have shaken India up a little.

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