Sri Lanka’s spinner Maheesh Theekshana indirectly taunted the Indian team over its dependence on small boundaries and friendly batting conditions in the wake of Sri Lanka’s historic series win against the Men in Blue recently. However, come August 7th and the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka outclassed India in the third and final ODI, winning it by 110 runs to clinch the series 2-0. This was their first bilateral series victory over India since 1997 and a deserving one for the island nation.

While speaking his mind, Theekshana did not mince words on what he felt was India’s vulnerability following the series. He says batters from India are generally used to playing off good tracks with small boundaries where most games generally end up with far too many scores on the scoreboard. Indicating that the Indian batting order just did not seem to get going on the challenging spinning tracks of Sri Lanka, Theekshana insinuates.

“They usually play on good wickets and small boundaries in India. We knew playing in Premadasa, if there’s a little bit of turn, we can take advantage because we have good spinners. Even in domestic, the wickets are like this and our batters know how to play,” Maheesh Theekshana remarked, outlining the home advantage that Sri Lanka’s spinners cashed in on.

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Struggles of India against spin were glaring throughout the series. As many as 27 wickets were lost to spin by the team; this is by far the most by any side in a three-match bilateral series. With spinners like Jeffrey Vandersay and his 8 wickets, Dunit Wellalage with 7, and Charith Asalanka with 6, it just seemed relentless as they continued to outfox the batting lineup of India.

Although the Indian captain, Rohit Sharma, got starts in almost all of the games—promising ones— he just seemed to run out of steam when he was in the process of accelerating in the latter part of his knocks. He once again lacked further support from other batters. The other notable contributor after him was Axar Patel, who scored 79 runs in three innings at an average of 26.

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Failing to chase the target of 231, 241, and 249 in all the three matches not only resulted in a rare series defeat but also revealed the preparation weaknesses for Champions Trophy 2025 that lies ahead. The defeat has certainly thrown questions over their adaptability to demanding conditions, especially on turning tracks, and thrown up a lot of food for thought while seeking to bounce back from hereon.