Sri Lanka vs India, 2nd Test Match, Day 1: 5 Talking Points

After a comprehensive win against the home side at Galle, the focus of the Indian Cricket Team shifted to Colombo for the Second Test Match. India, looking to seal the series, won the toss and elected to bat first. Sri Lanka hoped to restrict India to a lower score by picking up crucial wickets with the new ball.

Yet again, it was a batting exhibition from the Indian side, displaying the reason why they are the number 1 Test side in the world. Rahul, Pujara and Rahane made full use of the fresh conditions at Colombo as they imposed a dominating position at the end of Day 1 at 344-3 at a ridiculous run rate of 3.8.

Sri Lanka made an interesting choice of going in with just one seamer by the name of Nuwan Pradeep, which backfired later in the day. Sri Lanka now have an uphill task if they want to restrict the visitors below 600, which the Indians have made a habit of lately. That said, let us look at the five talking points of the day.

1. KL Rahul’s knack for 50’s

India went ahead with Abhinav Mithun in the First Test match at Galle as KL Rahul, their first choice opener, was down with flu. KL Rahul was scheduled to make a comeback after a long layoff from competitive cricket due to an injury which he sustained during the Australian series. Prior to his layoff, he was going through an exceptional run of form and was itching to go out and score a half century every time he took a guard at the crease. Today, at Colombo as well, showed no sign of rust as he smashed his 6th consecutive fifty in Test matches, carrying on his good form from the Border-Gavaskar series back in February-March.

Lokesh Rahul was all set to announce his comeback on the international stage with a century before being run out by his partner at the other end. His breezy innings of 57 off just 82 balls came at a strike rate of almost 70, containing 7 fours, taking over the assault from Dhawan. He now joins Misbah ul Haq, Rahul Dravid and Alan Border in the list of 50+ scores in most consecutive innings without a 100, with six scores above 50. He is now only behind Australian Chris Rogers who leads the list with seven scores.