Former India batter Mohammad Kaif has questioned Shubman Gill’s India for failing to find a consistent way past Sonal Dinusha in the second Test against Sri Lanka. Kaif believes the visitors had enough support and information around them to identify and attack the Sri Lankan batter’s clear weakness.
Dinusha scored an unbeaten 133 in Colombo to help Sri Lanka hold India to a draw after following on. Speaking during a discussion on Sony Sports, Kaif said the responsibility went beyond Gill and rested with India’s bowling group and coaching staff as a whole.
SL vs IND 2nd Test Day 5: Highlights
“Every batter has a shortcoming somewhere. You need to find where the shortcoming is. I am not talking about Gill. I am talking about the entire bowling unit and even the coaching staff. Everyone sits together and discusses that he scored a hundred in Galle, and where we can trap him when he comes now,” Kaif said.
“Tactically, I agree that they attacked less, the field was opened up yesterday, and the drive ball wasn’t bowled. Saransh Jain had dismissed him with that after his hundred. Mohammed Siraj had bowled a full ball, and he left it because he doesn’t like playing the drive. He doesn’t like playing shots there,” he added.
Kaif felt India’s resources made their inability to exploit that weakness even more puzzling. Dinusha had already shown against India in the first innings that a fuller line could create an opportunity, with debutant off-spinner Saransh Jain dismissing him for 103.
“You are talking about India. It’s not a club match that you got late. A video analyst is sitting, a stats person is sitting, and six or seven coaches are sitting,” he added.
KAIF QUESTIONS INDIA’S PLAN vs DINUSHA
The former India batter also pointed to the limited experience India’s younger bowlers have of operating deep into Test matches, particularly on pitches that change as the game progresses.
“Our modern young bowlers play very rarely on such a pitch. They don’t play on the fifth day. A Test match doesn’t go that long. So they also don’t know how to tackle it, and we have not seen this batter,” Kaif said.
However, he felt Dinusha should no longer have been an unknown quantity by the time India entered the second Test.
“They haven’t seen him at all. So there was a slight surprise package as well. The mistake happened in the second Test match. I can agree that you hadn’t seen him in the first Test match,” Kaif observed.
“In the second Test match, you won’t find a single boundary with a cover drive. He has played the pull, sweep, reverse sweep, but not the cover drive.”
Dinusha ended the two-Test series with 420 runs at an average of 140 and was named Player of the Match after scoring centuries in both innings in Colombo.
INDIA’S WTC ROAD GETS TOUGHER
India won the two-Test series 1-0 after their 165-run victory in Galle, but the draw in Colombo denied Gill’s side another WTC win. The result also underlined how important the upcoming fixtures will be in India’s bid to reach the 2027 World Test Championship final.
India’s next WTC assignment comes in New Zealand, where they will play two Tests in Wellington from November 19 to 23 and Christchurch from November 27 to December 1. The team will then face Australia in a five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy beginning in January 2027.
For Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir, the task now is to turn the dominance shown for large stretches in Sri Lanka into consistent wins. The draw in Colombo leaves India with less room for error as they chase a place in the next WTC final.
– Ends
