The Indian Test team captained by Rohit Sharma pulled off a comprehensive 2-0 series win against neighbours Sri Lanka, with the second game being a Pink Ball Test in Bengaluru. Neither game went the distance and India won at a canter, completing both games in less than 3 days of play. In fact, in both Mohali and Bengaluru, India were pretty much on top of things from the get go, not allowing the visitors even a sniff.
The dominant display in Bengaluru saw quite a few good performances for the Indian team, especially among the bowlers with senior men Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin cranking it up just when it was needed. Among the batters, Rishabh Pant continues to do his thing, and has set the standard even higher for himself after this series.
So, who were India’s best performers in the Pink Ball Test against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru?
Shreyas Iyer
At a time when the Indian innings was delicately poised thanks to the early wickets on Day 1, Shreyas Iyer showed why he is such an important part of the side. Iyer walked in at 6 with Rishabh Pant going great guns at the other end and quietly settled in. Once Pant was back in the hut, Iyer switched gears, causing the fans a great amount of joy and the Sri Lankans a fair bit of despair.
Iyer smashed 4 sixes and 10 fours in his knock of 92 to really drive the Indian total beyond 250 in the first innings, laying the platform for the bowlers to work their magic in difficult conditions.
In the first Test, when India won by an innings, Iyer scored 27.
Rishabh Pant
The wicket-keeper batter’s performances with the bat and the gloves has grown from strength to strength with every outing. While he got a quickfire 39 in the first innings, Pant’s attacking approach saw him score 50 off 28 deliveries in the second, making the record for the fastest 50 in Tests for India his own. His attacking knocks, both times, set the Sri Lankans back quite a bit in the game and set up the contest for India.
With the gloves too, Pant was brilliant on a turning wicket as he finished with three stumpings in the game, each one as good as the other. His fast hands rarely missed a chance behind the stumps, which of course helped India close out the contest quicker. Pant finished as the player of the series and had also scored a game changing 96 in Mohali.
Jasprit Bumrah
The ace pacer took a while to play his first home Test and now has also completed his maiden five-wicket haul in India. In the first innings of the Bengaluru Test, Bumrah was his unplayable self as Sri Lanka’s batters fell like a pack of cards.
Every time he bowled, Bumrah threatened to strike and picked the wickets of Kusal Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella and Lasith Embuldeniya in the first innings when SL were bowled out for just 109.
In the second, he started things off with the scalp of Lahiru Thirimanne and then accounted for the big fish, Dimuth Karunaratne, who scored a gritty 107, before helping wrap things up by packing of Suranga Lakmal in his final appearance in whites.
R Ashwin
Another senior pro, who always steps up to the plate, and is lethal in India is R Ashwin. The bowling all-rounder is well known to cause a lot of problem to the batters, and against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru it was no different.
In the first innings, Ashwin managed only two wickets as Bumrah stole the show, but the ace spinner was on hand to do the damage in the second innings. In the Bengaluru Test, Ashwin picked a total of 6 wickets and was the one who broke the Sri Lankan resistance on Day 3 when Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis were chipping away at the runs quite efficiently.
Ashwin finished the series with more wickets than any one on his team, picking 12 across two games.
Hanuma Vihari
Not India’s most flamboyant cricketer, but more than effective as was seen in the difficult conditions of Bengaluru. Replacing Cheteshwar Pujara at number 3 in Test cricket is never an easy job, but Vihari did a fantastic job.
In both innings, Vihari scored 31 and 35, but more importantly batted 160 deliveries, even as wickets fell quite fast in the game. Vihari’s gritty batting at number 3 eliminated any chances of a major collapse in both innings, allowing the middle order to accelerate later on and put more pressure on Sri Lanka.
In the field also he was quite sharp, and caught Dhananjaya de Silva well of Ashwin in the second innings.
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