Colombo Test: Gambhir on front foot, wants team to cut outside noise

The focus was once again on Gautam Gambhir and his nonchalance as he made an appearance at the customary press conference ahead of India’s second and final Test against Sri Lanka, commencing at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo from Sunday. He is not bothered by the ‘outside noise’ at the team’s up-and-down performance in red ball cricket for the past year while fact remains that Shubman Gill & Co cannot afford for nothing less than a 2-0 clean sweep to improve their chances to make the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

After successfully countering the hype about the spin threat from the Lankans at home in Galle, India will aim to seal their first away series win in three years after the one against West Indies in 2023. A sweep in the island nation will give them a chance to go up to fourth spot in the WTC rankings with 57.58 percentage points as Bangladesh, who are currently fourth in table with 66.67 percentage points post Darwin victory, are likely to lose the second Test against Australia at McKay and drop down to fifth spot with 55.56 percentage points.

Gambhir, however, is not ready to look too far ahead as it may invite pressure on a relatively young team which is also bogged down by a slew of injuries. ‘’Let’s try to stay in the present. For us, winning this series is as important as the WTC,’’ he said. A pragmatic approach alright for someone in the hot seat as that of Indian head coach, but Gambhir’s irritation at questions on any potential criticism once again came under media scanner.

‘’Criticism? My job is to win trophies. That’s all I believe in. That is the difference between me and everyone else. I don’t care about views or likes,’’ he remarked. It’s anybody’s guess about what prompted such a reaction and whether the recent chatter about VVS Laxman being hoisted in an umbrella role has anything to do with it.

 While the Indian camp usually don’t commit on their playing XI till the morning of the match, there is a question on whether wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav will make away for the debut of off spinner Saransh Jain. Kuldeep had a disappointing outing at Galle, taking a solitary wicket from 25 overs across two innings despite the pitch offering considerable assistance. He was also the most expensive among the bowlers, leaking over four runs an over in the opening Test.

The temptation will be to replace the left-arm wrist spinner with Jain, a cricketing move considering the surfeit of left-arm batters in the Lankan line-up. Gambhir, however, was non-committal: ‘’We will go in with the best bowling attack to win the Test – even it means picking three left arm spinners. We all know how good a bowler Kuldeep is and I have spoken to Kuldeep; he has the capability to be successful in all conditions.’’

Media reports from Colombo say that the senior spinner was absent at the nets on Friday - a signal that he may not be a part of the scheme of things.

From a Sri Lankan perspective, their top-order needs to show a lot more character to stay in the middle than just going for fancy shots and bringing about their downfall. They will hope that inclusion of in-form Kamil Mishara and Sahan Arachchige will bring a positive turn here to make it a more even contest.

Catch the match

Second Test: Sri Lanka vs India

Venue: Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo

Start: 10 am