Stuart Binny to join Indian squad ahead of Colombo Test

Dhawan, who scored a smashing 134 in the first innings of the Galle Test and did not field for a majority of Sri Lanka’s second innings.

India resumed on 23-1 on Saturday, needing another 153 for what looked like being a routine victory, but they lost wickets with regularity and were unable to put together any partnerships of substance. Our team morale is very high, ? said Mishra. “We made that one mistake in the end (in the first Test)”, said Shastri. But 2014 was another story where he hit his Test best of 319 against Bangladesh before following it up with two more centuries.

The only specialist opener that India have at the moment is KL Rahul while Cheteshwar Pujara also has had the experience of opening for India in a few Test matches. But we will work on them and improve.

He also accounted for the wickets of Rohit Sharma, wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin, while Kaushal picked up India captain Virat Kohli and then took a sharp return catch to send back Dhawan. We discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and where we should bowl at them. They had three spinners and the wicket was turning a lot, so we had to be aggressive. We support each other well. “All spinners like bounce in the wicket because that makes variations more effective”.

Backing the batsmen of his team, Mishra said the Indian cricket team has some of the finest batsmen.

While pundits of the game called the last two sessions that spelled doom for India a “disaster”, Indian team’s thrashing at the hands of a young Lankan team has raised questions over Kohli’s capabilities as a test captain.

The Indian batsmen, for some odd reason, went into the fourth day’s play with a defensive frame of mind and Shikar Dhawan took as many as 36 balls to score his first run in the morning. After each ball, he was supporting and so were the coaches.

“I can imagine the kind of emotions he (Sangakkara) might feel because this is something that he has probably done for the last 20 years, day in and day out of his life”. I have spoken with my coaches and asked them at what pace should I bowl here.

Left arm spinner Rangana Herath scalped 7/48 and Tharindu Kaushal took 3/47 as the Lankans bamboozled the Indians and wrap up the Test in three and a half days on a track, which gave good assistance to the slow bowlers.