India looks to defeat Sri Lanka sweep in pink ball second Test

India will be heavy favorites to keep their pink-ball Test record intact at home, as new skipper Rohit Sharma targets a clean sweep of Sri Lanka in the second Test, which begins on Saturday.

The hosts crushed Sri Lanka in Mohali in three days to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series, and the visitors must swiftly get their act together in Bangalore under the lights.

Ravindra Jadeja, the world’s top-ranked all-rounder, struck an unbroken 175 and claimed nine wickets in Rohit’s first Test since taking over as captain in all formats from Virat Kohli earlier this year.

“Rohit, we all know how tactically strong he is and how good he is. But I saw a lot of human elements in the way he led the side,” off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said this week.

“He was looking out for anyone in the team, how everyone would feel, how everyone’s confidence is important for the engine room to function.”

Rohit said the hosts put up a “near-perfect” performance.

India were the last of the big Test teams to play a five-day game under lights, seeing off Bangladesh in 2019 in just over two days in Kolkata.

But at the Adelaide Oval in December 2020 Australia skittled the Kohli-led side for 36, India’s lowest Test total.

The team got back to winning ways in a floodlit Test when they thrashed England in two days at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad in February last year

– ‘Not fighting back’ –

India will be expected to beat Sri Lanka again but Ashwin warned that day-night Tests can be unpredictable.

“It’s very hard to prepare for a pink-ball Test because you don’t know what to expect,” he told the website of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

“We have played three pink-ball Tests so far and each of them have taught us something different.

“The light’s also going to matter… (there are a) lot of variables going into the game, but (we) just take the confidence from the previous game. Looking forward to the challenge and hopefully the spinners will have a say.”

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who starred in the win over England with his 11 wickets, could make the XI at Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium after being added to the team in place of Kuldeep Yadav.

Sri Lanka have won two and lost one day-night Test in their three outings.

The tourists, led by Dimuth Karunaratne, failed miserably with the bat in response to India’s 574-8 declared in the first Test and were bowled out for 174 and 178 in under four sessions.

“If the opposition falls away or gives you an opportunity to play, you are playing. But if the opposition pushes you back, you are not fighting back,” Sri Lanka’s cricketer-turned-commentator Russel Arnold told cricket.com.

“That’s what I see in Sri Lanka cricket and that comes down to the approach.”

The island nation will be likely missing pace bowler Lahiru Kumara after he injured his hamstring on day one of the Mohali Test and could not take to the field apart from batting at number 11.