Shamik Chakrabarty in Colombo

Four days have passed since the first ODI between India and Sri Lanka played on August 2. Still, there’s no official word from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the host board, on the Super Over controversy. The game ended in a tie and instead of following the ICC’s playing conditions that mandated a Super Over for a tied ODI, match referee Ranjan Madugalle and on-field umpires Joel Wilson and Raveendra Wimalasir decided to bring down the curtain on the proceedings. Respective boards can amend the playing conditions for bilateral series, but the SLC is yet to confirm whether that has been done for the ongoing one.

Anyway, that is water under the bridge now and the teams are certainly not dwelling on it. India have a more important job in hand, negating Sri Lanka’s spin threat on the Premadasa Stadium turner and levelling the series in the last match. Maybe, they need to alter their combination.

Shivam Dube is in the XI supposedly as an all-rounder and he is playing as Hardik Pandya’s back-up. However, he has been given just six overs in the first two ODIs. Shubman Gill rolled his arm over in the first game. Rohit Sharma bowled a couple of overs in the second. Dube, in a way, is playing as a batter and taking that into account, India have better alternatives. Riyan Parag is a specialist batter who can bowl off-spin and leg-spin. The youngster was used as a fifth or sixth bowling option in the T20I series that preceded the ODIs and he did his job well.

Playing Riyan in the final ODI would help India retain the team balance, but given the way the ball is turning and the Sri Lankan spinners are holding sway, it would be remiss of the think-tank not to consider a counter-punch. Rishabh Pant is in the squad and he has the ability to take the game away from any opposition irrespective of conditions. India have been maintaining a left-right combination in the middle-overs via Dube and Axar Patel, but Pant is a specialist who can perform the role better.

“When it comes to their (Sri Lanka) bowling, they have variety — off-spin and leg-spin,” Washington Sundar said at the pre-match press conference on Tuesday. “We need to find a way to put them under pressure (and) that’s the reason (why) a left-hander is needed, especially in the middle-overs.”

Washington himself batted up the order in the first game. In the second, Dube and Axar came ahead of Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. The spin-bowling all-rounder didn’t elaborate on whether he was talking about a specialist left-hander in the middle-overs, but as regards to putting the Sri Lankan spinners under pressure, very few can do it better than Pant. He carries a certain X-factor and thinks out of the box. The range that he has, Pant can force the spinners to alter their line and length.

Before the series, Rohit had spoken about how it would be a tough choice to pick between Pant and Rahul. Eventually, the team management decided to go with the latter as the side’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter. In the final ODI, it shouldn’t be a contest between the two. Both can play, at the expense of Dube, if the management is willing to think differently. Pant had a good nets session on Tuesday.

Do India also need to change things tactically to counter Sri Lankan spin doctors? “There have been a lot of inputs from Gautam Gambhir,” said Washington. “He was a high quality player against spin and he has given his inputs. In practice today, we were trying to do those small changes.”

Is Rohit fully fit?

The India captain did turn up for practice, but he didn’t bat at the nets. Grapevine has it that he has picked up a niggle, although there’s no confirmation. If by any chance, Rohit misses the final game, India would suffer a big blow. The skipper has batted beautifully in the first two ODIs, scoring back-to-back half-centuries.

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