Pace trio of Shami, Siraj, Bumrah firing on all cylinders

Sri Lanka have a lot of thinking on their hands as to which direction they need to take, but India, as I said, are motoring along very nicely despite losing Rohit Sharma on the second ball of the innings

India did a complete demolition job on Sri Lanka on Thursday and are going from strength to strength with every game that they are playing in the World Cup.

The fast bowling trio of Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah are firing on all cylinders. They are executing as per plan and on a Wankhede pitch, bowling second when the sea breeze comes in a little bit, there’s always help for fast bowlers. They exploited this to the hilt and completely destroyed Sri Lanka in an absolutely one-sided match.

SL need to plan ahead

Sri Lanka have a lot of thinking on their hands as to which direction they need to take, but India, as I said, are motoring along very nicely despite losing Rohit Sharma on the second ball of the innings.

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Shubman Gill showed a lot of maturity again and Virat Kohli, like I have been saying throughout the World Cup, is batting with a gear to spare. He’s pretty much playing about 70-80 per cent of his potential and you always feel that there’s something more which he can give at the right time in the right moment. 

Gill and Kohli had a partnership of 189 runs, but India lost two wickets pretty quickly and then it was up to Shreyas Iyer to rebuild the innings from a faltering start into a great position. Being a Shreyas Iyer fan, I was really happy that he controlled the situation, controlled the atmosphere, took his time to settle down but at the same time, was unafraid to play the big shots.

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Now, this is a sign of a player who really believes in himself and even when he’s had a couple of failures in the last two or three innings and got a little bit of criticism for those failures, he still did not inhibit his natural game. When the ball was there to be hit, he hit it miles over the boundary ropes. 

Dravid will be pleased

Here’s a player who is uncompromising on his game. To me, and for the team management, it is something that gladdens hearts. I think coach Rahul Dravid will be happier about how Shreyas got his runs, more than how many he got.

While the team management will be happy that Shreyas is in form, they will have to think about how they bring Hardik Pandya back. From all reports, he’s almost match fit now, but I think they’ll play him in the Netherlands game—bowl five to six overs and then go into the semi-final. In all probability, India will play Australia at the Wankhede Stadium and that promises to be a cracker.

Jatin Paranjape, the ex-India and Mumbai batsman, is a former national selector too. He tweets @jats72

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