Mohammad Azharuddin, in 1993, last led an Indian team to a Test series triumph (1-0) on Sri Lankan soil
Cheteshwar Pujara set to open Indian innings with Lokesh Rahul
India goes into the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Friday hoping to register their first series victory in the island nation in 22 years.
Having registered his first Test victory as captain, after India humbled the Lankans by 278 runs in the second Test at the P Sara Oval last week, Virat Kohli is on the cusp of claiming his maiden rubber as well.
It was Mohammad Azharuddin who, in 1993, last led an Indian team to a Test series triumph (1-0) on Sri Lankan soil.
Kohli's five-bowler strategy has paid rich dividends, albeit with different results. From three spinners in Galle, and dropping Harbhajan Singh for Stuart Binny in Colombo, the team did well to pick all the 40 Lankan wickets on offer.
It's been a horses-for-courses policy thus far, and it has worked well.
Riding on Ravichandran Ashwin's terrific form with the ball (17 wickets in 4 innings), the visitors dominated almost eight out of the nine days of cricket played thus far in the two matches.
Ashwin, who bagged a five-wicket haul to help India skittle out Sri Lanka for 134 and win the previous game, combined well with Amit Mishra, who has taken 12 wickets in the series.
The Ashwin-Mishra combination has proved quite a handful for the Lankan batsmen. The two spinners were ably supported by Ishant Sharma (and Umesh Yadav in the second Test) in the pace department.
As such, the team only needed reinforcements in the guise of a fifth bowler, and, thus, Binny was summoned for the second game.
Upul Tharanga is expected to replace the outgoing left-hander, and is likely to bat at No.3. Skipper Angelo Mathews has taken up the number four slot, leaving Lahiru Thirimanne at number five. The big worry here is that Tharanga is also a left-hander and their record against Ashwin in this series has been worrisome for Lanka.
Twelve of his 17 victims have been left-handers, with Kumar Sangakkara accounting for four dismissals and Thirimanne another three.
It is easy to assume that the Indian attack will bear the same look, as it did at the Oval and SSC.
There’s some rearrangement of the batting line-up too. Ajinkya Rahane has moved to number three and Rohit Sharma, after a failed experiment in three Tests, is now slotted at number five. With the five-bowler theory in effect, there was no place for Cheteshwar Pujara in this line-up, not as a specialist middle-order batsman at least.
However, due to injuries sustained by Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, he is now slated to open the innings with Lokesh Rahul at the SSC. Unless some cruel fate transpires to rob him of this chance as well, this Test will perhaps define the Saurashtra batsman's standing in the squad.
Having Pujara as a makeshift opener also allows the 32-year-old Naman Ojha to finally make his Test debut, while Karun Nair is likely to warm the bench. On paper, at least, this combination looks like India's best bet to win a Test series away from home.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, seem to be in disarray and it is not entirely due to Sangakkara's retirement after two matches in this series. In a way, it did put a hold on the hosts' plans for the series since they will now be fielding another batsman.
But, then again, they have already been mixing their batting order in the past two Tests, so it shouldn't matter this time around either.
Then there is Mishra's leg-spin to contend with; seven of his 12 wickets have come against lower-order batsmen. All in all, it puts a lot of onus on the top-five batsmen to get runs, and that has not been an easy task thus far.
Perhaps, it also puts the SSC groundsmen in a quandary. In Galle, the pitch was tailor-made for Rangana Herath and he came good on day four.
The P Sara Oval pitch was a little more conservative, and while their batsmen didn't give a sniff to Herath this time, the Indian bowlers were persistent in their approach.
It remains to be seen if the SSC wicket will resemble either of the pitches from the first two Tests, or will be flatter in nature, pointing towards a draw.
Either way, India's dominance in this series will have a bearing on it. Certainly, Sri Lanka will not want to lose a second home series in succession, after going down 1-2 to Pakistan.
Teams:
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Lokesh Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Naman Ojha, Karun Nair, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Stuart Binny.
Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (captain), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal, Upul Tharanga, Jehan Mubarak, Kusal Perera, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Tharindu Kaushal, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhammika Prasad, Vishwa Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera.
Match starts: 10.00 IST.
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