Sri Lanka vs India, 3rd Test Match, Day 1: 5 Talking Points

After a comprehensive victory at Colombo and series sealed at 2-0, the focus of India shifted to the Third Test match at Pallekele. Virat Kohli’s new found luck with the toss continued as he won his third consecutive toss in the series and elected to bat first. Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul made batting look as they toyed with a hapless looking bowling attack of Sri Lanka. Dhawan went on to score a ton while Rahul missed out on his.

It was a game of two halves with India dominating the first 40 overs and Sri Lanka pulling it back in the next 50 overs. By the end of the day, it was Sri Lanka who would be the happier unit as they managed to see the back of the all the major Indian batsman. India, at stumps, were placed at 329 for loss of six wickets. Let us now take at the five talking points from the day’s play.

1. KL Rahul’s feat

The Rich form of KL Rahul continued in Pallekele as the right hander brought up his seventh consecutive half century in Tests, following the 57 in Colombo. His innings of 85 came off just 135 balls and a strike rate of 62. He smashed eight crisp boundaries in his breezy knock and looked set to score a Test ton. Rahul joined the likes of Andy Flower, Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Rogers and Everton Weekes who have scored seven consecutive fifties in Test matches.

However, he would be kicking himself as he missed out on yet another opportunity to score a ton. The last three figure score for Rahul came during India-England series back in 2016 in Chennai Test, where he scored 199. It will be interesting to see if India gets an opportunity to bat again and KL Rahul scoring his 8th consecutive half century, toppling all records.