That the decision did not backfire Kohli as his bowlers bowled out Sri Lanka for 205 even before the second new ball was due is an altogether different matter. It was mainly due to Sri Lanka batsmen’s failure to adapt to the conditions and show patience against the tight Indian bowlers, mainly Ishant Sharma and spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, which caused their downfall. Rohit, who last played a Test against New Zealand in Indore last year, returned to the 11 after missing 14 matches. The only logic in giving Rohit a game here is to give him game time ahead of the tour of South Africa for whose conditions captain Virat Kohli had said on Thursday that there was hardly any time to prepare. Either chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav should have been played here or uncapped Tamil Nadu all-rounder Vijay Shankar, of whom Kohli and the think-tank is mightily impressed, could have been tried at this level.

Source: dna November 25, 2017 01:30 UTC