Bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad still likes to occasionally turn his arm over in the nets, and on Monday in Colombo, he got through the defences of S Badrinath with his trademark slower one.

“Venky, why are you shattering my batsmen’s confidence?” coach Gary Kirsten remarked from the adjacent net, and while he did say it in jest, confidence is something the Indian batsmen can do with as they walk out to try and seal a series win in Colombo on Tuesday.

The coach realises the desperate need for his batters to seize the opportunity. So, Badrinath is seen repeatedly sweeping throw-downs from Kirsten, while Suresh Raina works on connecting with his reverse-sweep. At a distance, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are knocking the ball hard at the nets — the sweet sound of ball hitting the middle of the bat is doubled as they drive together.

Throwing away starts

“It’s not like I am not scoring, I am really batting well and dominating the bowlers but I just have to improve on my judgment of taking a single. The way I got run-out yesterday is really frustrating,” Kohli says.

Most batsmen in the line-up have been guilty of gifting their away wickets after getting good starts. In Sunday’s match, for example, Kohli got 25, Yuvraj Singh a quick 12, Rohit made 32 before holing out while Raina ran himself out after 53.

They did manage to smother Ajantha Mendis’s effectiveness by attacking, but with the exception of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, no one has shown the tenacity to consolidate, going for the spectacular rather than sticking to the basics.

... contd.