There seemed a sense of complacency

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra felt a sense of complacency with the Men in Blue’s bowling in the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. India lost the series 2-0, thereby conceding an ODI bilateral rubber against Sri Lanka for the first time since 1997.

Chopra shed light on how the Indian spinners had the opposition on the mat in the first two ODIs but the Lankans were able to get away and post totals above the 200-run mark. He felt there was a lack of urgency to close out the innings which hurt the Men in Blue immensely.

Aakash Chopra said about India’s bowling in a video on his YouTube channel:

“We weren’t able to close out the innings with the ball. There seemed a sense of complacency that we would get the wickets anyway and if we don’t get the wickets we will chase the runs anyway. The ruthlessness was missing.”

Chopra expected the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel to run through the Sri Lankan batters with the amount of turn available off the surface. However, that didn’t happen as the Men in Blue couldn’t bowl out Sri Lanka even once in the series.

“India play spin really well on flat wickets” – Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra observed that the Indians played spin better than the opposition batters on flatter decks and struggled whenever there was enough turn in the surface to help the spinners dominate. He also noticed how the gulf between the bowling sides gets reduced on such turning tracks and stated in the same video:

“I think we outbat the opposition and play spin really well on flat wickets. Out bowlers also bowl better than theirs on such pitches. However, when the pitches begin to turn, our batting becomes ordinary and the gap in the quality of bowling is reduced. So this is a problem they need to address.”

Speaking to the reporters after the game, Rohit Sharma shed light on the lack of sweeps and reverse sweeps from the Indian batters, an area the Men in Blue will need to look at.