India’s Ravichandran Ashwin appeals for an unsuccessful wicket of Sri Lanka Rangana Herath (not pictured) during the first day of their first test cricket match in Galle, August 12, 2015. We were let down by our batting today. As he was hurt and suffering from hairline fracture in his hand, he was not able to play the next matches. “I don’t see that as an issue at the moment”, Shastri said.
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The young Indian team has been falling prey to spinners in the recent past whether it was Australia or England.
He said – “It was not a question of buckling under pressure”. These boys have enough talent.
India resumed on 23-1 on Saturday, needing another 153 for what looked like being a routine victory, but they lost wickets with regularity and were unable to put together any partnerships of substance.
When asked about Binny’s inclusion and his role in the team, Shastri replied, “We thought about it and we needed someone for additional support. We had to play positively; we had to play our shots, sweeps and reverse sweeps”. And he can bowl as he is a genuine all-rounder. “It was a poor performance from the batting unit in the first innings, but we came back really strong and hard”, Mathews said at the post match presentation ceremony.
Dinesh Chandimal was awarded man-of-the-match honours after an unbeaten 162 in the second innings, while Sangakkara made scores of five and 40.
However, no replacement has been called in yet, and only Stuart Binny will be joining the team. The injury was aggravated to the extent that his hand was swollen considerably when he went in to bat on the third day. “It was unfortunate … because Shikhar is a class act, he has been brilliant for us”. He played with a “crack” and got a hundred.
Skipper Angelo Mathews has overtaken his team-mate Kumar Sangakarra and, in the process, moved up one place to fifth in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen after scores of 64 and 39.
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His innings helped Sri Lanka to get a fightable 175-run lead over India which eventually turned out to be 63-run more that an unsure Indian team could get in the final innings.
