Team selections are a big thing, especially when it involves Indian cricket and an overseas Test tour. Discussions rage long and hard, whether on television channels or in print/digital space, within the confines of one’s living room or in a crowded, noisy watering hole where it’s almost impossible to hear even the person sitting next to you. The beauty about cricket in India is that everyone and his dog has an opinion on almost everything, and no one is shy of voicing it. That’s how it has been, and that’s how it will be, because that is what cricket means to so many in our country.
Currently, though, the focus has shifted somewhat from Test selection debates, nestling in the somewhat belaboured contours of One-Day Internationals, which is no more than a necessary evil by all accounts. ‘Evil’, because it is almost being cannibalised by its younger, more exciting 20-over sibling but also ‘necessary’ because despite the lack of patronage of bilateral contests, its flagship event, the 50-over World Cup, continues to be cricket’s most coveted property.
Blinkered hue
If much of India’s attention has attained a blinkered hue and confined itself primary to the one-day format, a lot of it has do with the celebrated duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Not even the two former captains themselves devote as much time thinking about their future, and the next 50-over World Cup which is some 15 months away, as those around them, the armchair critics, the acknowledged experts and the self-styled pundits alike whose stance shifts pendulously depending on numbers.
Why, until the last of three ODIs against England at Lord’s 10 days back, Rohit was being viewed as a ‘liability’, as someone who was holding up the progress of a much younger man, Yasashvi Jaiswal. The 24-year-old left-hander, who boasts hundreds in two of his last three ODI innings, didn’t find favour for the tour of England, where the 39-year-old Rohit had only modest returns in the first two outings. But after the Lord’s defeat in a massively run-filled game when Rohit produced an 84-ball 34th century, the very same worthies who were questioning his place sang a different tune, which is pretty much par for the course when it comes to these matters.
For the time being, there is respite for Rohit (and Kohli, we have made them a package deal, right?) with India’s next 50-over engagements not until end September when they host West Indies. Before that, there are a string of other commitments, starting with a two-Test series in Sri Lanka from Independence Day Saturday at the lovely Galle International Cricket Stadium.
From various perspectives, this is a massive series with so much at stake for so many — players, sure, but also the support staff helmed by head coach Gautam Gambhir which is two members light (for now) with the contracts of Ryan ten Doeschate and fielding coach T. Dileep not being considered for renewal by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Ten Doeschate, the former Dutch international, was in any case said not be interested in continuing in his capacity as assistant coach and has returned to Kolkata Knight Riders, where he will renew acquaintance with Abhishek Nayar, the one-time Indian batting coach who has become the head honcho with the three-time former IPL champions.
Gambhir needs a few Test results to go his way, and not only because of two heavy losses in three home series between November 2024 and November 2025. Like his wards, he is coming off a forgettable outing to the United Kingdom, an outing that included an historic 0-2 surrender to Ireland in the T20I showdown, a 0-4 drubbing (with one washout) in the corresponding series in England and a 1-2 loss from 1-0 up in the ODI series that followed. Not much should be read into the fact that Shreyas Iyer’s first win as T20I skipper, in his eighth game, came in Zimbabwe last week when Gambhir wasn’t on tour (V.V.S. Laxman stepped in for the short series), but it is inevitable that Gambhir, the feisty former India opener, will be feeling the pinch somewhat.
Or, at least, he should be. In November, after India slumped to their worst Test defeat (by 408 runs in Guwahati, their biggest loss by runs) against South Africa, Gambhir was pointedly asked if he still thought he was the best man to be India’s red-ball coach.
The questioner took pains to stress on the ‘red-ball’ qualification because since he succeeded Rahul Dravid in July 2024, Gambhir’s record — he didn’t play, agreed, but failure is collective, like success, isn’t it? — hasn’t been flash. A 2-0 win at home against Bangladesh was offset by a 0-3 battering by New Zealand, India’s first home series loss in nearly a decade. India then wiped the floor, well beaten 3-1 in Australia to crash out at the league phase of the World Test Championship. It was the first time they hadn’t qualified for the final, but the honeymoon period ensured that Gambhir escaped relatively unscathed.
In this current cycle where they have played nine Tests, India have won four and lost as many to occupy the bottom half of the nine-team table. Among them is a 0-2 white-flag to South Africa, at the end of which the head coach was confronted with an uncomfortable but thoroughly merited home-truth question.
Getting defensive
“It is up to the BCCI to decide,” he began, somewhat testily. Before adding, “Indian cricket is important, I’m not important. And people can keep forgetting about it (but) I’m the same guy who got results in England as well (drawn 2-2 series), with a young team. I’m the same guy under whom we won (the 50-over) Champions Trophy (March 2025) and the T20 Asia Cup (September 2025).”
Limited-overs successes to deflect an unpleasant Test record, Gautam? Tut-tut.
India have nine more Tests to salvage this currently floundering campaign and Sri Lanka is the first stop in that endeavour. The good news is that India haven’t lost a series across the Palk Strait in 19 years. Following a 1-2 defeat in 2008, they drew 1-1 in 2010, triumphed 2-1 in 2015 and swept to a 3-0 scoreline two years on, so there should be a lot of confidence within the ranks even if there is not a great deal of experience of playing Test cricket in Sri Lanka.
But the bad news is that India have regressed hugely when it comes to confronting even half-decent spin on surfaces that assist that craft. And Sri Lanka have more than half-decent spinners who can expertly exploit familiar home conditions as they try to climb above India, at the very least (the Lankans are ranked sixth to India’s fifth as it stands).
Where India will be playing a Test series of more than one match for the first time in nine and a half months — they did play and destroy Afghanistan in New Chandigarh in a one-off fixture last month — Sri Lanka are coming off a 0-1 loss in the West Indies in a two-match showdown which ended some three weeks back.
Dhananjaya de Silva’s men have greater motivation than ever before as they embark on the twin challenges of regaining their hegemony over India in their own background and hauling their WTC aspirations back on track at this early stage (they have played only two series so far), and will leave no stone unturned as they target making life as difficult as imaginable for Shubman Gill’s men.
Out and doubt
At the best of times and even with a full-strength unit, it isn’t always possible to state with any certainty that the Lankan lion can be bearded in its own den. India are at less than 100% strength already; certainties for the tour, if not in the playing XI, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar and Harshit Rana, have been ruled out and do not figure in the 15-man squad named on Tuesday. There are question marks over No. 3 batter Sai Sudharsan and bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who need to clear fitness tests at the Centre of Excellence before they board the flight to Colombo.
Sai Sudharsan made two excellent hundreds for India ‘A’ in the two ‘Tests’ against their Sri Lanka counterparts on admittedly batting beauties in Galle in June-July while Bumrah is, well, Bumrah. To have to go into the Test series without either of them will be a big blow, a blow that will be magnified if, with due respect to Sudharsan, the one missing out will be Bumrah.
Washington’s unavailability has compelled the selection panel led by Ajit Agarkar to turn to an uncapped 33-year-old off-spinner. Saransh Jain is a decade young in First Class cricket and a Ranji Trophy champion with Madhya Pradesh; he has taken more than three and a half wickets on an average in 54 First Class games and boasts an impressive strike-rate of 54.3. He is also a handy lower-order left-handed batter, which is a big bonus given that Gambhir is almost fixated with having deep batting line-ups. Jain has worked his way through the ranks and deserves the call-up, never mind the circumstances under which they have come, though it is difficult to see him breaking into the XI despite the profusion of left-handers in the Lankan camp.
On expected lines
Ravindra Jadeja’s return after missing the Afghanistan Test is along expected lines and the senior man will slot in as the premier all-rounder while his fellow left-arm spinner, Manav Suthar, has made himself undroppable after a Player-of-the-Match-winning debut in New Chandigarh. The only way in for Jain, therefore, is at the expense of Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist spinner. Despite undercurrents of misgivings, India have persisted with Kuldeep even when he hasn’t bowled at his best — and, honestly speaking, he wasn’t that against Hashmatullah Shahidi’s men last month. They will again bank on his experience to do the job against a formidable batting group headlined by opener Pathum Nissanka, former captain Dinesh Chandimal, the remarkably consistent Kamindu Mendis and Dhananjaya himself.
India’s batting wears a settled look and apart from Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal were part of the ‘A’ tour, ostensibly at Gambhir’s insistence. There wasn’t a lot to gain because of how docile the tracks were, but they will be better off for the experience, as will their colleagues who have a sole but rare four-day First Class warm-up game before diving into the Test series.
