India’s assistant coach, Abhishek Nayar, acknowledged the impressive performance of the Sri Lankan bowlers following India’s 32-run loss in the second ODI on Sunday.
Reflecting on the middle-order collapse in the first two matches, Nayar highlighted the challenging conditions that favored the spinners and praised Sri Lanka’s bowling attack.
“When you play a sport, you never take anything for granted. Sri Lanka played good cricket with the bat and the ball. So credit to them for the way they played. Was it a shock? Yes, there was a surprise. But you anticipate and try to understand that the game can turn on its head because there is so much spin on offer,” Nayar said after the match.
Discussing the struggles against spin, Nayar noted, “The conditions were quite conducive (for spin). Scoring runs against the new ball is relatively easier, even if you see the previous game. As the ball gets older, especially batting second, it gets much tougher. We must give credit to the Sri Lankan bowlers as well. Vandersay bowled the ideal length in these conditions. He used his googlies well and kept a stump-to-stump line.”
Nayar admitted that tough conditions in the 50-over format can lead to such collapses. “Sometimes in tough conditions, especially in a 50-over format, these things happen. Yes, you have to go back, rectify it and try to understand why it happened twice. The day before yesterday, at least we had some partnerships; today, we lost quite a few wickets in a bundle,” he added.
India, aiming to level the series on Wednesday to avoid their first bilateral series defeat to Sri Lanka since 1997, must regroup quickly.
Nayar defended the decision to shuffle the batting order, explaining that the team aimed for a left-right combination in the middle. “Positions only matter if you play in different phases of the game. If you look at all middle-order batters, the idea is to bat in the middle-order. We lost wickets in the middle phase, which means (they) batted where they were supposed to. It was not as if the middle-order batted towards the end,” Nayar explained.
“They had an off-spinner and a leg-spinner, so the thought process was right. Sometimes, when you don’t get the result, you question it. But the (idea) is about having the left-right combination so that we can capitalise on the conditions.”
Nayar also pointed out India’s difficulty in containing Sri Lanka’s lower-order batsmen, allowing them to push past 200 runs despite being six down for less than 150. He acknowledged the challenge of batting second. “When you are chasing, there is pressure from the required runs and conditions. That’s why you will see such partnerships in teams batting first. Wellalage has batted well in both the games. The pitch is different in the first and the second innings, but credit where it is due. Sri Lanka have played well – all-round. It was one of those games where we tried hard, but it didn’t work out,” Nayar said.
