India capitulated to their third-lowest Twenty20 score, as Sri Lanka recorded an emphatic victory in the first game of the three-match series.
India’s defeat not only came after three successive wins in the format away from home, but also after they were named favourites for the World T20.
Put into bat after Sri Lanka won the toss, India were sent packing for a meagre 101 – and at 7-58, even that total looked a distant dream.
Furthermore, Sri Lanka were without some of their best players; Angelo Mathews didn’t make the tour because of injury, Lasith Malinga’s knee didn’t allow him to take over the reins, while the experienced bowling duo of Nuwan Kulasekara and Rangana Herath were also left behind.
With Tillakaratne Dilshan out because of an injury, a second-string Sri Lanka took on the newest world number one on the ICC Twenty20 rankings.
If the Indian defeat came as a surprise, the surface on which the game was played was a bigger one. It looked like the curators had heard the cries of the fans from over the world, and prepared a surface with enough in it for the bowlers.
The pitch had a thick spread of grass – thick for a Twenty20 game, anyway – which seam bowlers from both teams managed to exploit. But once India had been bowled out for 101, defending it with just two frontline seamers was never going to be easy.
Sri Lanka looked to have made a hash of the chase but they survived some close calls and rode on a few missed chances to register the win.
On Pancake Day, the Pune curator dished out a surface that could hardly be described as that.
And having only just returned from Australia, where batting on roads seemed to be the theme of the tour, India went into this game like they were caught totally unawares.
For starters, India’s team selection was off the mark.
The surface demanded at least three seamers be played, to go with the medium-pace variety of Hardik Pandya, but skipper MS Dhoni opted for his tried and tested duo of R Ashwin and Ravindran Jadeja to work alongside Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah.
The trouble with this tactic was accentuated by their meagre total, but the question is whether Dhoni trusts his fast bowling department enough to add an extra seamer. With the benefit of hindsight, would Dhoni have played an extra speedster?
The other issue was the approach of the Indian batsmen. Coming from the highs of three successive big scores in the T20s against Australia, they failed to adapt to the much spicier pitch.
Right from the time Rohit Sharma tried to thump a length ball over mid-off but only offered a catch to that fielder, it was a procession with a common theme – the batsmen went too hard at the ball, and once the bowlers placed the balls in the right area, India struggled.
Part of the reason behind those woes was their inability to respect the conditions. Some of the shots played by the top-order batsmen were more suited to the Australian conditions, and they paid a heavy price.
Shikhar Dhawan went swinging at one that seamed to be caught by third man, Ajinkya Rahane played a flick too early and offered a leading edge, while Suresh Raina wanted to give himself room to slash one through the covers with neither the line nor length to play that stroke.
Both Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni were done in by the bouncer, and when Hardik Pandya fell to the two-card trick of an out-going delivery followed by an in-swinger, India had lost the cream of their batting for next to nothing.
Although the Sri Lankan bowlers deserve credit too.
Kasun Rajitha, who triggered the early collapse and was named man of the match with figures of 3/29, bowled exactly the right channels for the surface.
Dushmantha Chameera supported him well, but the surprise package was Dasum Shanaka, who in 26 previous T20s had picked up just two scalps. He finished with three of his own.
India won’t press the panic button yet, because such pitches have been few and far between in the country, but with the series on the line, they need to show more respect to their opponent in Game 2.
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