India look too good for struggling Lanka

London : Beware of falling into the trap of ‘foregone conclusions’, that’s the warning given by Pakistan today, the world’s No. 8 team, who routed the batting of South Africa, the world No. 1, at Birmingham today.
However, as India take on Sri Lanka tomorrow, it’s very, very difficult to see the Sri Lankan team surprising India. Sri Lanka, the world No. 7, themselves aren’t too certain they can beat India. Angelo Mathews, the captain who’s coming back from an injury and is fit enough to only bat, said as much today. Asked if the inexperience of Pakistan and Sri Lanka made things easy for South Africa and India in Group B, he said: “Yeah, it does.”

Strong India
India, meanwhile, have few worries. All their batsmen fired against Pakistan. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan started from where they’d let off at the 2013 Champions Trophy, which too was played in the UK.
Yuvraj Singh played another of his match-winning knocks, confounding those who’ve believed for quite some time that his time with Team India is over.
Virat Kohli himself played a two-part innings — watchful and less-than-fluent when he had to come off the pitch a few times because of the rain, and then devastating with some big hits in the death overs.
A very significant event was the promotion of Hardik Pandya over MS Dhoni — it’s a sort of acknowledgement, a confirmation, that Dhoni’s powers are seen to be declining even by the team’s think-tank. When Dhoni was at the height of his powers, it was impossible to imagine someone else would be preferred to him as a power-hitter.
There’s another way to look at it — as it being a case of unstoppable ascension of Pandya rather than the decline of Dhoni. That’s what Kohli suggested today when he spoke of Pandya in very flattering terms. “Because he’s a fit guy, he’s superb in the field, superb with the ball, brilliant with the bat,” Kohli said. “So as I said, very hard to find a guy like that, and the kind of balance he brings to the team is priceless. That was on display the other day.”

Bowling balance
India’s bowling, for a change, has been talked about as much as their batting. Mathews did this too, today. “If you talk about India, the batting lineup has always put teams under pressure. This bowling lineup is quite different,” Mathews said. “They’re one of the best in the world. You get a good balance of spin and pace, and they’re all different to each other, and they’ve got a fantastic bowling attack. Yes, for the batters (Sri Lanka’s) it will be hard work.”
Mathews specifically mentioned the fact that the wicket was “greenish” today. A greenish match for an ODI? That would be quite unusual, especially as it’s been raining in London and a grassy track can make it very difficult to bat — and the organisers certainly don’t want that because, in turn, the fans don’t want that.

Calm Kohli
Kohli himself radiated calmness on the eve of the match. If India win, they’ll practically assure themselves of a spot in the semifinals. Yet, he was careful to point out that they’d not play with “arrogance”.
“Yes, at the moment we are playing some good cricket, but that doesn’t mean that we play with arrogance…” Kohli said. “We respect every opposition the same way, and we intend to play the same kind of cricket against everyone. That’s the only way to win a game of cricket. But there are no guarantees. In this sport, anyone can upset anyone on their given day.”
That’s true, but no one actually thinks Sri Lanka can beat India tomorrow.

Virat’s take
On benching Ashwin
Ashwin is a top-class bowler. Everyone knows that. And he is very professional as well. He understands the dynamics of the side that was picked in the last game and he was absolutely fine with it. He told me ‘I support you whatever you want to do’. That’s always been our equation…

On promoting Pandya over Dhoni
It’s very hard for people looking from the outside, but the kind of understanding we have within the team, it’s difficult to explain. We have a lot of respect among the players and trust among the players… Everyone respects and understands what we decide to do as a team. If people react to it differently, then it becomes an issue, but if everyone is supportive of it, then you have no issues at all.

Sri Lanka’s nemesis
Virat Kohli
Matches 40
Runs 1856
Avg 56.24
100 6
R Ashwin
Matches 20
Wickets 32
Eco 4.65
SR 35.06