Team India are yet to register a win in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. While the first one ended in a tie, the second one went to Sri Lanka and they head into the final ODI with the possibility of losing their first bilateral series against Sri Lanka in 27 years. However, the Indian batters’ inability to counter the Sri Lankan spinners in the middle overs cost them the games. In both games, Rohit Sharma took advantage of the new ball and helped India with blazing starts while chasing fairly low targets. However, the Sri Lankan spinners dismantled the batting unit in two games as well. Washington Sundar, the Indian all-rounder, however, backed the two losses as an opportunity to prepare well.
“Honestly, we are quality players of spin. We’ve always played on these kinds of wickets even at home, even in Tests and in domestic cricket as well. We know a lot of our players have done well in the middle-order especially while batting against spin. It is just a matter of finding a way in their own individual ways to try and get the job done. Everyone knows it is a challenging wicket and the Indian team always puts its hands up when the challenge arises. That’s when we have been very good with both bat and ball and have come out in flying colours out of challenging situations. That is the definition of the Indian cricket team over the last many years,” he said.
“I think it has been the same scenario in this series as well and it is just about finding a way individually and getting the job done. I think it is a great opportunity to do that tomorrow,” he again added. “I feel it (the pitch) is similar in both innings. In the evening, maybe the zip is a bit more and slides in at a quicker speed but I feel it is the same.”
Meanwhile, an interesting feature of India’s batting against spin in the second ODI was they refused to use their feet against the tweakers, something that the head coach Gautam Gambhir used to do quite well during his playing days.
“He (Gambhir) was a high-quality player of spin. We’ve always seen him put up brave performances, especially on such pitches against quality spin bowling. So obviously there has been a lot of input from him. That’s one of the reasons we came here today to practice and try and find a way and try to do those small little changes. We’re the best team, we just need to put our hands up in those critical situations in the games. Tomorrow it’s an opportunity for us to do exactly that and win the game. Obviously, with big tournaments coming up, we will be in such situations. It’s really important to find ways to see what we can do to win those critical situations in similar conditions against quality spin attacks,” Washington Sundar concluded.
