🏏 India tour of Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka vs India, 3rd ODI, Colombo🏏
Quite early on in the practice session on Tuesday, Shubman Gill stepped out against Axar Patel and gave his left-arm spin a hard whack. Using of feet was one aspect of India's game that was completely shelved against the Sri Lankan spinners in the second ODI, which they lost, leaving them with the need to salvage the series in the last game.
As many as five batters were pinged on their pads and dismissed LBW on Sunday - the joint-most number of wickets they have lost in an ODI in this fashion. Troubling them was a leggie who was not even in the original squad till a day earlier, with nothing more complicated than sticking to a stump-to-stump line. Abhishek Nayar, India's assistant coach, had admitted to the troubles that the Indian batters faced through the middle overs for two games in a row, and the need to go back and rectify those errors.
In the two-hour session, where Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli especially spent the majority of the time, they would hope that some of their experiments have held them in good stead heading into the last game of the ongoing Sri Lanka tour.
The loss in the second match has also opened up India's options - to field their best possible XI or experiment keeping in mind the next big ICC tournament that's coming in a matter of six months. For the newly-appointed Gautam Gambhir-led coaching staff, a loss would be quite a jolt having inherited a side that had put to display some of India's best ODI cricket less than a year ago. For all the early success in their reign, they wouldn't want to end their two-week trip to the south on a note where they find themselves with more questions than answers.
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