We have it in us to bounce back: Virat Kohli

The previous afternoon – in a World Cup final now remembered for Adam Gilchrist’s squash-ball-in-glove heroics, floodlight failures and farcical organisation – Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya had, for just over one quixotic hour, made the impossible seem plausible.

In Adelaide, there was a need to mix aggression with caution; in Galle, they had to be more proactive.

A recent poll by the Cricinfo website had a staggering 48 percent of respondents vote for Sangakkara as Sri Lanka’s greatest cricketer, 15 percent more than all-time wicket-taking record holder Muttiah Muralitharan, who was billed as the obvious choice. “That’s sport”.

He has also, beyond the boundary, been a consistently impressive ambassador for the game, wise and trenchant in his comments about the way it is run.

He added that all the mistakes that the team committed in the first Test will be worked on and improved because they’re “playing Test Cricket after a lengthy gap”.

At school he was good at tennis, badminton and cricket, but thanks to the then principal of the Trinity College, Leonard de Alwis’ advise, that Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara took cricket seriously. In 85 Tests sans the keeping gloves, that figure is an astonishing 67.39.

“Unfortunately he got injured when he played his first game against Pakistan but he is back”.

Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Thirimanne plays a shot during the third day of the first cricket test match between India and Sri Lanka in Galle, Sri Lanka, Friday, August 14, 2015. If he was a great competitor on the field, he was immensely popular off it. I remember going out for a dinner with him in Melbourne in 2005 when we were on the same Asia XI side to take on the ICC World XI. “It’s a special occasion for us to be a part of”.

0937 hrs IST: TOSS: India elect to bat against Sri Lanka.

Another thing the youngsters could learn from Sangakkara is his toughness. “But they are getting closer, and with this team, if they get one (win) on the board, it could be the start of many”. Losing both at once would have gutted the Sri Lankan middle order of its two greatest ever performers at the same time. If he wants to play and is keen, I’m sure he can go through the little discomforts he might have. The most worrying concern for the fans will be the weather though. He finished the Cowdrey Lecture in 2011 with these words: “They are my foundation, they are my family”. In the past 18-20 months, India have lost some matches which they should have actually won quite easily. With me are all my people. Posters and photographs of Kumar Sangakkara, small and big, were stacked neatly at the entrance leading to the Sri Lankan dressing room, red carpets laid out in the VIP stands, comfortable chairs put in place and dusted to a nicety.

Ravi Shastri recently remarked that the team will continue playing fearless cricket and will not change their approach of attacking in the second India vs Sri Lanka match in Colombo.

“The best we could do is try and win the game so that we win the series and that will be the best farewell for him”.

“This is obviously an emotional game for all of us”, Mathews said on Wednesday. This is the right moment and time.