The ODI series between India and Sri Lanka finished with the home side whitewashing the Men in Blue 2-0. This was a disappointing series for Rohit Sharma and his men who had a rare failure in the bilaterals especially against a struggling Sri Lankan side. This was not a good start to the Gambhir era in ODI’s as we have seen some disappointing performances in this series already which we could never imagine.
This ODI series is where nothing really went the way of the Men in Blue whether it is with the bat or with the ball. Though the series was played on a tough wicket at Colombo in the Premadasa, we still expected a much better performance from the Indian side than we got in this 3-match series. The Indian side was looking good as a unit as well with a perfect mixture of batters, bowlers and all-rounders but could not not give the results for the team at all.
So, here are the top 3 reasons why India failed to win the ODI series in Sri Lanka:
3. Pacers underperforming
This might not be the biggest reason, but was definitely something which the Men in Blue could have worked on. While Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar were looking good on this wicket, the likes of Mohd Siraj and Arshdeep Singh had struggled on this wicket completely and also gave crucial runs in the end. It is safe to say that this was not the best of performances from the pace duo which we witnessed in this series.
2. Batters unable to convert starts
The start of the Indian innings always looked solid, but it was then followed by a heavy collapse which resulted in the Lankans getting back in the game straight away. The fact that skipper Rohit Sharma was the only one who had 50+ scores to his name is something we do not expect from this lineup filled with some world-class batters. None of the batters could convert their starts into bigger innings which eventually resulted in the Indian batting collapse which was also a result of some terrible shot-making by the batters as well.
1. Terrible shot selection in crucial stages
This might be one of the biggest reasons for this series loss where we saw some great batters get out to some terrible shots in some of the crucial stages of the game. The slog sweep from Arshdeep Singh in the first ODI was a huge example for everyone. The Indian batters did manage to build some great partnerships but some of the shot selections we saw from them are truly disappointing to see in this series which has cost them big wickets in crucial stages of the game.
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