Riyan Parag receiving his cap from Virat Kohli

Shamik Chakrabarty in Colombo

Yet again, Sri Lanka won the toss — three on the spin — and they made a good start in the third ODI. An 89-run opening stand between Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando gave them control in a game, which is a must-win for India. The tourists made two changes, bringing in Rishabh Pant and Riyan Parag for KL Rahul and Arshdeep Singh, respectively. Here are some nuggets from the final game of this white-ball series…

Riyan gets his ODI cap from Kohli

Virat Kohli has always been Riyan’s idol and it was befitting that the 22-year-old got his ODI cap from the legend. At the pre-game team huddle, Kohli called the youngster a player who has the ability to win matches for India. “Riyan, first thing, congratulations for getting to play your first game (ODI) for India,” Kohli said, with the BCCI putting out the video on its X (the erstwhile Twitter) handle. “In today’s cricket we all know, apart from performances, people who are responsible for you guys getting selected, they are watching you and they see something special in you. And having spoken to GG bhai (Gautam Gambhir), Rohit (Sharma), selectors and everyone, they see something special in you. You have that ability to become a match-winner for India.”

Riyan made his T20I debut in Zimbabwe last month. In Sri Lanka, he played the three T20Is but wasn’t picked for the first two ODIs. With India caught in a middle-order muddle against Sri Lanka’s spin, he was selected as a specialist batter who would bowl a few overs of spin in the middle-overs. Riyan bagged his maiden ODI scalp by trapping Avishka Fernando leg-before. By the 44th over, he was already India’s most successful bowler, claiming three wickets.

Bold selection call

In the first two ODIs, as the Sri Lankan spinners held sway on the Premadasa Stadium turners, India missed someone in the middle-order who could take the game to the opposition. Not many can match Pant’s skill-set of playing and thinking out of the box. Very few have his range.

As Pant was recovering from a horror car crash, Rahul stepped into his role of a wicketkeeper-batter. He was steady behind the stumps and scored runs as well. But Rahul is mainly a flat-track batter in white-ball cricket, someone who gets stuck when conditions get tough. The World Cup final against Australia last year was a case in point, where he struggled to get going and scored 66 off 107 balls. Here also, he didn’t look comfortable in the first two matches, scoring 31 and 0, as the Sri Lankan tweakers spun a web around India’s batting. Choosing between him and Pant was a tough call and the team management persisted with the former to start with. But eventually, they fell for Pant’s X-factor.

RevSportz had reported on Tuesday how the left-hander was in line to return to the playing XI. The team management took the bold call of dropping Rahul.

Did India miss a trick?

Somehow, Mohammed Siraj didn’t look at his peak in this white-ball series. In fact, he looked a player who needed a break. Conditions here are not conducive to fast bowling, but Siraj had been a tad loose in this series, even taking that factor into account. In the final game also, he was expensive, conceding 22 runs in three overs in his first spell and then getting clobbered by Fernando when he returned for his second.

Siraj, though, remains Jasprit Bumrah’s first-choice new-ball partner in 50-over cricket, when everyone is available for selection. But who is the team’s third seamer in this format? Mohammed Shami’s white-ball future appears uncertain. Arshdeep is mainly a T20 bowler. Harshit Rana looked impressive at the nets, but he didn’t get a game. Did India miss a trick by not playing the young fast bowler?

400 for Madugalle

On Wednesday, Ranjan Madugalle became the first ICC match referee to officiate in 400 ODIs. The former Sri Lanka batter, who has been doing the job since 1993, was presented with a plaque on behalf of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the ICC by SLC CEO Ashley de Silva. “It has been a great honour and privilege to have officiated in international cricket for so many years and it’s almost dreamlike to be reaching this milestone,” Madugalle said via an ICC press release.