COLOMBO: The series-deciding third One-day International against Sri Lanka on Wednesday will provide India the opportunity to show their prowess against the hosts’ spin threat in challenging conditions, the visitors’ all-rounder Washington Sundar has said.

Winning the game and equaling the series, which started with a thrilling tie between the two sides, Sundar believed, would boost India’s confidence ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy.

Led by Rohit Sharma, India are staring at their first bilateral ODI series defeat against the Islanders in 27 years after losing the second ODI by 32 runs, thanks to the lackluster performance of the batters, who failed to tackle the Sri Lankan spin attack.

“It is an opportunity for us to go out there and put our hands up and win those critical situations,” Sundar told reporters on the eve of the match. “Obviously with the big tournaments coming up, we will be in similar situations and it will be important to find ways as to what we can do to win those critical situations especially in similar conditions against quality spin attack.

“I think whatever we have done in this series so far, we will take that as a learning, obviously try and move ahead and win the game tomorrow in all aspects of the game.”

Sundar also came out in defence of the batters, who looked shoddy against the spinners in the series so far.

“We are quality players of spin,” he noted. “We’ve always played in these kinds of wickets, even at home, in Test matches, and in different formats. Even domestic cricket, we play a lot of games in such wickets,” he said.

“And we know a lot of our players have done really well, especially in the middle order, batting against spin. So it’s just a matter of finding a way, their own individual self and trying to get the job done.”

The 24-year-old said the team has tried to make tactical changes after getting inputs from new head coach Gautam Gambhir.

“There has been a lot of input from him,” Sundar observed. “He is a high-quality player of spin. We have always seen him putting up great performance, especially in such wickets against quality spin.

“That is one of the reasons we came out here today to practice and try and find a way and try and do those small little changes tactically and be prepared and ready for tomorrow’s game and be really on top of our game in all aspects.”

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024