Dhawan ruled out of Sri Lanka series with a hand injury

Chandimal’s unbeaten century helped Sri Lanka enforce a turnaround and beat India by 63 runs in the first Test after the hosts being in the dumps for the major part of the match.

Dravid, who is now the coach of India A team, said, in cricket, result is what matters and not how you play – whether it is aggressive or passive. But there is nothing lacking in team morale.

Meanwhile, lauding Dhawan’s sprit, Shastri said, “In the modern era you are bound to get these injuries”.

The India Test skipper said he was glad that the Lankan great was playing his last worldwide series against India.

“The plan is always pretty basic against any good quality players”, India captain Virat Kohli, leading in his first full-series since taking over from Mahendra Singh Dhoni late last year, told reporters yesterday. “We just couldn’t play forward defence, we had to play the sweeps and the reverse-sweeps and it worked”, he added. Sometimes what happens is that under pressure we lose a wicket or two, but our batsmen can play spin very well, We all make mistakes, but that does not set a benchmark, ? said Mishra. “We discussed everything out there threadbare and it’s for us now to come out as a team and learn from what went wrong in that Test match“.

It is not known whether the right-handed opener will be available for Thursday’s second Test, after the BCCI said he was “on the mend” with a decision on his fitness to be made on Wednesday.

The team management stated that Vijay is getting better and the decision of his inclusion will be taken on the day before the second test. As of now, the only opening possibility for India is KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara. I gave my 100 percent, that is why I succeeded I guess. I am carrying bit of an injury as well. “I think he’s a world-class bowler”. Whenever we bowl to them even at nets, it didn’t look like that.

(MENAFN – Khaleej Times)Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath claimed a five-wicket haul as chasing a target of 176 the Indian batting line-up collapsed to 78/7 at lunch on Day Four of the first Test match against Sri Lanka at the Galle global Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.