Prasidh Krishna had just given India the first breakthrough of the morning by removing Kamil Mishara, and Shubman Gill decided to bring Saransh Jain into the attack from the other end. Eighth over of the morning on Day 3, and spin was introduced.
The debutant off-spinner approached the crease nicely, flighted the ball, got a bit of drift and Pasindu Sooryabandara defended it off the front foot. So far so good, just that Saransh had overstepped by a long way. Welcome to Test cricket.
Butterflies in the stomach can do funny things. Bharat Arun, the former India bowling coach, had slipped while bowling his first ball in Test cricket and needed assurance from his captain Kapil Dev. There have been other instances of nerves getting the better of a debutant.
It was important for Saransh to make a good comeback and four dot balls on the spin helped. Then, Sooriyabandara brought out the reverse-sweep, and he and his batting partner, Kamindu Mendis, ran four. The start was pretty eventful for a newcomer.
Early days, but he is a good bowler with a bit of an unusual action. The way he moves away and wide of the crease at the time of loading adds a different tilt to his action. At the same time, the ball nicely came off his hand and he got a nice drift. His first spell read: 6-2-17-0. Gill gave him a slip and a leg gully to start with before adding a short leg to the close cordon. Saransh did enough to get an extra close-in fielder.
Earlier, Prasidh bowled a hostile spell and when he removed Mishara, the hosts were in serious trouble on 35/3. After that Sooriyabandara and Mendis somewhat steadied the ship with an 86-run fourth wicket partnership. But Prasidh struck again on the stroke of lunch by accounting for Mendis with a short ball. It was a tame dismissal to a pretty innocuous delivery for a batsman who was there for 93 minutes. Sri Lanka went to lunch on 130/4, with Sooriyabandara batting on 65.
Lunch scores: Sri Lanka 130/4 (Pasindu Sooryabandara 65 batting; Prasidh Krishna 3/35) vs India
For More Exciting Articles: Follow RevSportz
The post Eventful start for Saransh Jain appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.
