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India v/s Sri Lanka | 2nd Test, Day 1: Virat Kohli springs surprise by picking Rohit Sharma over 5th bowler

The only logic in giving Rohit a game here is to give him game time ahead of the tour of South Africa for whose conditions captain Virat Kohli had said on Thursday that there was hardly any time to prepare

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Ravindra Jadeja celebrates a Sri Lankan wicket on Friday
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All along a vocal supporter of five-bowler theory, India captain Virat Kohli sprang a surprise by playing four frontline bowlers, and no all-rounder, in the second Test against Sri Lanka that began here on Friday.

It was a pitch that did not need an additional batsman in Rohit Sharma, who was not originally to play here but was added to the playing 11 after pacer Mohammed Shami suffered a niggle on his left hip on the morning of the match. On a pitch that was conducive to batting, and which the Sri Lankans did not take advantage of after winning the toss, an extra batsman was only being wasted, especially when India are packed with the top batsmen in the first five and have three all-rounders, of whom two (Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha) have Test centuries and another (Ravindra Jadeja) has quite a few fifties.

That the decision did not backfire Kohli as his bowlers bowled out Sri Lanka for 205 even before the second new ball was due is an altogether different matter. It was mainly due to Sri Lanka batsmen’s failure to adapt to the conditions and show patience against the tight Indian bowlers, mainly Ishant Sharma and spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, which caused their downfall.

Rohit, who last played a Test against New Zealand in Indore last year, returned to the 11 after missing 14 matches. The only logic in giving Rohit a game here is to give him game time ahead of the tour of South Africa for whose conditions captain Virat Kohli had said on Thursday that there was hardly any time to prepare.

Either chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav should have been played here or uncapped Tamil Nadu all-rounder Vijay Shankar, of whom Kohli and the think-tank is mightily impressed, could have been tried at this level. It also gave India the fifth bowling option.

By being included in the final 11, the Mumbai batsman finally got to play a Test in Nagpur, where he was originally scheduled to make his debut in 2010 against South Africa but an injury while playing football during warm-up on the morning led to Wriddhiman Saha making his maiden Test appearance as a batsman.

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