Curse of 27 hits India, who fail to handle Sri Lankan spin

Indian batting woes against spin bowling came to the fore after the Rohit Sharma-led side, which played the 2023 ODI World Cup final last year, lost a three-match ODI series to Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

India lost 27 wickets to spin bowling, nine each in the three matches as Jeffrey Vandersay (eight), Dunith Wellalage (seven) and Charith Asalanka (six) sharing 21 wickets in the series. Wanindu Hasaranga (three), Maheesh Theekshana (two) and Akila Dananjaya (one) shared the other six wickets gone to Sri Lankan spinners.

After India had swept the T20 International series 3-0 under Suryakumar Yadav, their big guns Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli arrived to bolster the side for the 50-over format. The two have been given an opportunity to represent the country in the 2027 50-over World Cup to be played in South Africa, subject to fitness.

India and Sri Lanka played out a tie in the first ODI with the host team bowling out Sharma’s team for 230, the score they made for the loss of eight wickets batting first.

Dunith Wellalage got the Player of the Match Award for his 67 not out and 2/39.

The next match saw India falling short of islanders’ 240 by 32 runs with Vandersay picking 6/33 and earning the Player of the Match Award.

India were then humbled in the last game by 110 runs. After the Charith Asalanka-led side made 248/7 in 50 overs, Wellalage & Co ran through the Indian batting, dismissing them for 138 in 26.1 overs.

Wellalage took 5/27 to win Player of the Match, and also, the Player of the Series Award.

In fact, this was the fifth time that an Indian team has lost nine or more wickets in an ODI and the instances have been against Sri Lanka and in Colombo. Three of them were in this series.

This is also the first time that Sri Lanka have beaten India in a bilateral ODI series since 1997.

In short the number 27 was significant. Sri Lanka won an ODI series against India after 27 years and this is the first time that a team lost 27 wickets to spin in a bilateral series of three games.

India skipper Rohit Sharma blamed Indian batsmen for not countering spin well enough.

“We didn't play enough sweeps, reverse sweeps, or paddle sweeps, and used our feet too much. That was the difference,” he said.

Sri Lanka spinner Theekshana said they exploited India’s weakness against spin.

“They usually play on good wickets and small boundaries in India. We knew playing in Premadasa, if there's little bit turn, we can take advantage because we have good spinners. Even in domestic, the wickets will be like this and our batters know how to play,” he said.

Cricket, India, Sri Lanka, Dunith Wellalage, Rohit Sharma, Jeffrey Vandersay