‘Was it a shock? I would say…’: Abhishek Nayar tries to make sense of India’s unexpected defeat to Sri Lanka – Times of India

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to explain the surprising loss to Sri Lanka in the second ODI, India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar responded, “”Was it a shock? I would say yes.” He attributed the result to the spin-friendly circumstances, which have the power to drastically change the course of a game.
Leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay caused havoc with six wickets to hand the visitors a 32-run loss in the second One-Day International (ODI) in Colombo on Sunday, highlighting India’s vulnerability to spin once again.
“…there is a surprise. But you anticipate and understand that in these conditions the game can turn on its head because there is so much spin on offer,” Nayar said at the post-match press conference, according to PTI.

On a pitch that offered considerable of support for the spinners, India was chasing 241 and finished at 208 all out in 42.2 overs. With the exception of captain Rohit Sharma, the Indian batters had struggled in the previous game as well.

“Even if you look at the last game, it was relatively easy to score against the new ball. As the ball got older, the conditions when batting second got slightly tougher. Sometimes in tough conditions, especially in the 50-over format, this happens,” he added.
The think tank will consider what has gone wrong thus far, according to the assistant coach.

“We want to go back and understand, and rectify, why it happened twice in a row. The day before yesterday, we were able to stitch partnerships but today we lost quite a few wickets in a bundle.”

While maintaining the right-left batting combination, India shuffled their middle order, promoting Shivam Dube (0) to the number four spot. Shreyas Iyer (7) and KL Rahul (0) were sent at numbers six and seven, respectively.

“My belief is that in any sport, position only matters if you’re playing in different areas of a game. We lost wickets in the middle phase, and that’s where the middle order batters batted. It’s not as if middle order batters batted towards the end.

“The thought process was right. When it doesn’t work out, these questions are asked often. But I’ve always believed that if a middle order batter bats as a middle order batter, it is the right decision,” Nayar said.

Nayar believes that the side batting second is under more pressure.

“When you are batting first, there is less pressure. When you are chasing, the pressure is more because you have to keep an eye on the run rate, wickets.

“Whenever you bat first, you often have partnerships. Wellalage batted really well, both in the last game and this game. They scored important runs in the lower order.”