Kolkata: Much like the gloomy weather in the city, the Indian team put on a sorry performance with the bat as Sri Lanka clearly had the upper hand on the first day’s at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.
Sri Lanka, with an aim to win their first ever Test match in India won the toss and opted to bowl first on a pitch that was a green top. Such a pitch itself meant that they had already begun their preparations for the upcoming tour of South Africa early next year but nonetheless they got off to the worst possible start as KL Rahul, who was preferred over Murali Vijay as the opener was dismissed in the very first ball of the innings.
Shikhar Dhawan, who accompanied him to open the innings also got his middle stump uprooted by Suranga Lakmal and suddenly, India were tottering 13/2 in 6.2 overs.
Skipper Virat Kohli too followed suit as Suranga Lakmal got this third of the match and Sri Lanka were all over the hosts by then. But the weather again came to the rescue for India as play was stopped due to bad light. Sri Lanka, after stunning Pakistan 2-0 in the UAE had that momentum with them but it was a thoroughly dismal performance from the Indians.
The number one Test side thus needs to do a lot of work on rebuilding their innings on the second day and Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara would look to do just that on Day 2.
Brief scores-
India 17/3 (Cheteshwar Pujara 8 n.o, Shikhar Dhawan 8; Suranga Lakmal 3/6) vs Sri Lanka.