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SpORTS MARCH 11, 2022 | The Indian Eye 44

India’s Virat Kohli receives a Guard of Honour by India teammates commemorating India’s Ravindra Jadeja celebrates the dismissal of Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne
his 100th test match appearance on the 2nd day of the first test match between India on the 2nd day of the first test match between India and Sri Lanka, at PCA Stadium,
and Sri Lanka, at PCA Stadium, in Mohali on Saturday. (ANI Photo) in Mohali on Saturday. (ANI Photo)

india pLan to Sweep teSt omitted from the squad after the they would like to be at their best at pLan waS to Score QuickLy,
poor show with the bat.
home.
SerieS too Dangerous batter Rishabh Pant The guests who have suffered a SayS JadeJa
After doing a clean sweep over might be playing at No.5 replacing clean sweep against the hosts in the
Star Indian all-rounder Ravin-
Sri Lanka in the T20 series, Team Ajinkya Rahane who was a primar- T20Is will look to have their say in dra Jadeja on Saturday revealed
India will look forward to continuing ily middle-order player. Right now the longest format of the game. Sri that he sent a message asking for
their dominance in the two-match India has a solid batting lineup with Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne declaration as he wanted his side to
Test series against the Lankan Lions. players like Rohit Sharma, Virat would hope that his team’s batting exploit the variable bounce and turn
Both teams are squaring off on Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and bowling lineup will do well so
Friday in the opening match of the and Hanuma Vihari. So, it will be dif- they don’t have to go through anoth- on offer against Sri Lanka on Day 2
of the first Test.
two-Test series which will be played ficult for the team management and er whitewash. With a major contribution from
at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium in skipper to drop any aforementioned The Lanka team is hanging on Jadeja (175*) in the first innings,
Mohali. In this match, all eyes will player for the opening Test match. their spinners for success but the the hosts declared on 574/8 and are
be on Virat Kohli who will be play- After the devastating multi-se- slow bowling might not work against in total control as Sri Lanka were
ing his 100th Test. Kohli will be eager ries loss against South Africa, Indi- the Indian batting attack. reduced to 108/4 at the end of day
to get back in the runs on this spe- an pacers Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit India also possesses the top spin- 2 in the first Test here at Mohali.
cial occasion. The 33-year-old has Bumrah and Mohammed Shami will ners. It will be hard for Sri Lanka’s Ashwin scored a handy inning of
amassed 7,962 runs in 99 Tests at an be eager to be in form for the series batters to face Ravichandran Ashwin 61 and bagged two wickets later.
average of 50.39 with 27 tons to his against the lions. Against Proteas, In- and Ravindra Jadeja. Skipper Dasun “Yeah there was a message coming
name. However, the batter has not dian pacers failed to make an impact Shanaka would hope that his team from inside and I was also telling
been able to register a century in in- in the last two Tests and now against get their act together and be able to them.
ternational cricket since 2019 and the their sub-continental neighbours, give a fight to hosts. When I was batting, balls had
entire nation is waiting for his 71st in- started taking spin and there was
ternational ton. variable bounce. So I told them that
Rohit Sharma will also share
some spotlight with Kohli as the the wicket is playing tricks and we
should put them [Sri Lanka] into
clash in Mohali will be his first match bat now itself,” Jadeja said in the
as an Indian Test captain. India will press conference after Day 2’s play.
be keen to bounce back after their “They were on the field for al-
series loss of 2-1 against South Africa most two days and were naturally
away earlier this year. While, in Sri tired. So it wouldn’t have been easy
Lanka’s last Test series, they defeat- for them to come out and start playing
ed West Indies, taking the series 2-0. shots and stay further on the field. So
The series is a part of the ICC
World Test Championship where Sri our plan was to score quickly and de-
clare as soon as possible,” he added.
Lanka are placed first while India are On his epic hundred, Jadeja ex-
placed fifth in the standings. plained his mindset of trying to im-
For hosts, youngsters like Shub-
man Gill and Hanuma Vihari are prove every time he plays for India.
“I look to improve my game ev-
likely to be long term replacements ery single time I play for India. When
of senior players like Ajinkya Rahane I get an opportunity to score runs, I
and Cheteshwar Pujara along with India’s Ravichandran Ashwin plays a shot on the 2nd day of the first test match between look to implement that opportunity
Shreyas Iyer as backup middle-order in performance and so yeah, all in all,
batter. Both the senior players were India and Sri Lanka, at PCA Stadium, in Mohali on Saturday. (ANI Photo)
I am very much happy,” he said.

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