The India team commenced the series in style at Galle, where the team displayed patience to register a convincing 165-run victory over an obstinate middle order of the Sri Lankan team.
India scored 462 runs in the first innings before dismissing the opposition for a score of 284.
An average second-inning score of 193 runs meant the host team had to make 372 runs; however, the hosts managed 206 runs, resulting in India winning the match decisively.
The Sri Lankan team’s captain, Dhananjaya de Silva, acknowledged that his team felt competitive against India after the second day of the match despite the loss.
For the India team, the Test match at Galle was a bright spot for its future generation of players, where some young players performed well despite their debut matches in Test cricket.
KL Rahul, the former captain, highlighted the significance of playing India A matches, which made it easy for the younger players to adapt to Test conditions. On the other hand, for the Sri Lankan team, wicketkeeper batter Niroshan Dickwella and batter G.S. Dinusha were some of the players who fought back.
With the series already in the balance, Sri Lanka came back strongly in the second Test at the SSC ground in Colombo.
India decided to bat first and put up a declaration of 503/9, which was answered in true style by Sri Lanka.
Coming in to bat in their second innings after being forced to follow-on, the home side put up an admirable performance of scoring 429/9, as the game eventually ended in a draw.
This admirable effort helped Sri Lanka in denying India a clean sweep in the series. The cricket pundits analyzed the game as a winning effort by India in the series but also saw promise in the efforts by Sri Lanka.
Apart from the outcome, there were other interesting aspects of the series.
One young cricketer from India who played very well during the series was the bowler Manav Suthar, who played an important part in the bowling efforts of India in the series.
As far as the seaming efforts were concerned, the fast bowlers of both sides dominated in the series. Fast bowlers took 24 out of the total 67 wickets taken by the bowlers in the series.
There were also strategic games within the series that could be studied for quite some time to come.
Debates about the Indian captain, Shubman Gill, strategy in the Colombo Test, along with that of veteran fast bowler, Lahiru Kumara, of making India bowl more than 250 overs in the two Tests, made it evident that this was one very competitive cricket match, albeit one that India won.
