During India’s trip to Lanka in August, Sehwag twisted his ankle during training and missed out on two games. On Wednesday, before start of play, he knocked a few balls around before feeling the same spasm in his glute muscles that had cut short his net session on the eve of the game. “Sehwag has a mild spasm in his left gluteus muscle. Therefore the team management decided not to risk him in this match,” team manager Prakash Dixit said.

Interestingly, Sehwag, well aware of the fact that he had missed out in Dambulla last time around, went through his fielding drills cautiously, and reacted happily once he was done. “Fielding toh ho gayee... ab batting,” he said as he padded up. Just then, he flicked Munaf Patel to mid-wicket and immediately pulled his gluteus muscle. He did try stretching a bit but decided against continuing and quit the nets prematurely.

Minute’s silence

Just as the umpires walked in, the Indians formed their customary huddle at the boundary ropes. On Wednesday though, this was an unusually subdued affair, a one-minute silence observed as a mark of respect for the former President of India, R Venkatraman. While the Indian team management couldn’t arrange for black bands at the 11th hour at this venue, Dhoni and his boys showed their requested that the Indian flag at the ground be at half mast.

Sachin falls to debutant

Kumar Dharmasena, the former Sri Lankan off-spinner, made his first big call in international cricket when he declared Tendulkar out leg before to Thilan Thushara Mirando. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be a wrong decision as the ball had pitched marginally outside leg stump. Sachin Tendulkar has had a history of being dismissed by debutants — this time around, it was the umpire rather than the bowler.