All eyes on Virat Kohli as India take on Sri Lanka in pink ball Test

Bangalore: Virat Kohli has been chasing an elusive international hundred for 28 months now. He will certainly hope that he can break the jinx when India take on Sri Lanka here in the second Test beginning Saturday. Incidentally this city is the spiritual home of Virat Kohli with him having played for RCB since the inception of the IPL.

Interestingly, the last time Kohli reached a three-figure mark, it was a ‘Pink Ball’ game like the one here. India had thrashed Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs in Kolkata, back in November 2019. He had scored 136 in the match.

The former India skipper has taken strike in 28 Test innings since then but a Test hundred has remained elusive. The 33-year-old Kohli has got 50-plus scores only six times with highest being a knock of 79 against South Africa in Cape Town in January this year.

Now he is returning to the M Chinnaswamy stadium. It is a venue which he knows like the back of his palm. This is because he has led his IPL side RCB here for a decade. That comforting familiarity with the conditions may also help Kohli.

A colossus that he has developed into in world cricket, expectations are always high from the star Indian cricketer. Kohli is perhaps enduring the most challenging phase of his career and not just in pure cricketing terms.

Kohli’s run-in with the establishment and the subsequent removal from the leadership role in ODIs may have added pressure. However, he can breathe easy since in Sri Lanka he faces a bowling attack, which hardly has the wherewithal to trouble the Indian batters in their own den.

Kohli had got a start even in the Mohali Test but could not make full use of it. It’s not that he is not batting well. He is still striking the ball with ease and that trademark fluency. However lapses in concentration at times are becoming his undoing.

Since it is a pink ball contest, either a fit-again spin all-rounder Axar Patel or pacer Mohammed Siraj could replace Jayant Yadav in the playing XI. Both have the ability to cause more damage in a Day/Night game. Jayant did not do anything special in Mohali. Even when the Sri Lankans were struggling, he went wicket-less in his 17 overs across the two innings.

Axar, in his last pink ball Test, had wreaked havoc with his under cutters in Ahmedabad against England. He took 11 wickets in that contest. He even opened the attack in the second England innings. However, if grass is left on the pitch then Siraj would be a better option for skipper Rohit Sharma.

Their resources already not good enough to challenge the talent in the Indian squad, Sri Lankans will be without pacer Lahiru Kumara, who has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury. But since pacer Dushmantha Chameera has also been ruled out due to an ankle injury, Chamika Karunaratne will replace him in the visiting playing XI.

Dinesh Chandimal is also likely to play as Pathum Nissanka, who was a better performer in the last game, is also out due to an injury. Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne will have to lead from the front and produce something out of the ordinary. He got starts in both innings at Mohali but could not convert. Also, veterans like Angelo Mathews have to show a bit more stomach for fight.

For both Sri Lanka and India, it will be their fourth Day-Night Test and both share similar record of two wins and a defeat each.