Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin called out Team India’s casual and dull approach on Day 5 of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo. India needed four wickets on the final day after enforcing the follow-on, but they had to settle for a draw in the end.

“I know, I understand, there was threat by the weather a bit. But somewhere I get this feeling that the mentality was like, ‘Chalo game khatam karo hum nikal jayenge’ (Let’s get this game over quick, they will be out and then we will go). Enforcing follow on is out of trend a little bit. Once you bowl 25 overs, your effectiveness will not be that much, a bowler is not a machine, even they get tired,” R Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

READ HERE: Shubman Gill Breaks Silence On ODI Futures Of Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli

“I had a feeling that they took it slightly easier, because they had bowled almost 90 overs in the first innings as well. So, that is not an ordinary spell. If you had bowled them out for 50-60 overs, then I can understand, but that was not the case. So I feel that India took it lightly. So enforcing the follow on, I don’t think it was the right approach,” he further added.

R Ashwin also added that not enforcing the follow-on, and batting for even just a session, would have made a lot of difference as the refreshed bowlers could have been effective as well.

“I accept that when there is threat of rain you have to take such a decision, but I have a feeling that a conversation might have happened and you could see from the body language that they thought Sri Lanka will be bowled out. Even batting for one, or one and a half sessions with a good run rate, bringing them back into the field could have made a difference,” R Ashwin concluded.