India's Tour of Sri Lanka 2017: A look at Men in Blue's past five visits to the island country
Team India start off their campaign with the first Test starting at July 26.
New Delhi: The Virat Kohli-led Indian team are in Sri Lanka for a full series, comprising three Tests, five One-Day Internationals and one T20 International with a clear target to maintain the numero uno spot in the ICC Test Rankings and also improve their standings in the limited-overs formats.
Ahead of the opening Test at Galle starting July 26, we look at the Men in Blue's past five visits to the island country.
The tour of 2015: India won 2-1
With Virat Kohli taking over the Test captaincy role from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, much was expected from the Delhi-boy to lead his side to victory in his first ever full series. By the end of the 3-match Test series, India had sealed victory over Sri Lanka for the first time in 22 years.
The start, however, wasn't the most impressive as they had lost the opening Test in Galle by 63 runs. The match is famously known as Kumar Sangakkara 's last in Lankan colours. India failed to chase Lanka's target of 167, with Rangana Herath producing a spectacular display of left-arm spin.
The series was levelled at the P Sara Oval, as India claimed a resounding 278-run win over Lanka. KL Rahul, R Ashwin and Amit Mishra played pivotal roles in the crucial win.
The stage was set for the decider at the SSC. Cheteshwar Pujara hit a sublime 145 and Ishant Sharma picked a five-wicket haul in a fiery spell of pace bowling as India registered a 117-run win over the Islanders.
The tour of 2010: Series drawn 1-1
The Galle Stadium witnessed legendary Muttiah Muralitharan reach an unprecedented 800-wicket mark in his farewell Test, setting the bench mark in last over of his career.
He helped Sri Lanka go 1-0 up with a ten-wicket thrashing of India.
At SSC, both teams settled for a draw in which a whopping 1478 runs were scored for the loss of just 17 wickets. It left both teams primed for a decider at the P Sara.
Virender Sehwag's 109 and some quality lower order batting took India 11 runs past Sri Lanka's 425. In the second innings, Sehwag, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha took three wickets each to restrict the hosts to 267. India, in reply, were once again struggling at 62/4; but Tendulkar (54), VVS Laxman (103*) and Suresh Raina (41*) eventually carried them to a five-wicket win and hence ending the series 1-1.
The tour of 2008: Sri Lanka won 2-1
This was the series of Sri Lanka's new revelation, Ajantha Mendis, who constantly troubled the tourists with his mystery spin bowling.
After posting a gigantic 600-run total in the first innings of opening Test in Colombo, Lanka limited India to just 223 with Muralitharan and Mendis claiming five and four wickets respectively. Lanka enforced follow-on, and India could only manage 138 in 45 overs with Mendis taking four and Murali six. The result was in the Lankans favour, an innings and 239-run victory.
At Galle, Sehwag led Team India's battle against Sri Lanka's deadly spin attack. The Nawab of Najafgarh slammed an unbeaten 201 out of India's first innings total of 329 runs. Mendis still managed to claim six wickets, but Harbhajan matched his counterpart's wickets tally to restrict the hosts to 292.
After giving Sri Lanka a 310-run target to chase in the second innings, Harbhajan and Ishant produced the goods to bundle out the opposition for just 136.
The finale at P Sara saw Indian batsmen succumb to Mendis, who increased his series tally further to take eight wickets and seal the series.
The Tour of 2001: Sri Lanka won 2-1
At Galle, Sri Lanka claimed a stunning 10-wicket win over India after seamer Dilhara Fernando (six wickets) and spin maestro Muttiah Muralitharan (eight) restricted India to just 187. Sri Lanka's 387 had put the hosts under pressure which reflected in India's second innings performance en route to 180. Sri Lanka chased down the remaining 11 runs to secure an easy win in the opening contest.
Kandy witnessed Sourav Ganguly's India seal a 7-wicket win despite falling short of Sri Lanka's first innings total (274) by 42 runs. Zaheer Khan and Venkatesh Prasad claimed nine wickets in between them to restrict the Lankans to 221. Then, Indian skipper led his side with an unbeaten 75 to reach 264, thus claiming a win in the second match.
With the third match scheduled at SSC, Muralitharan bagged 8/87 to bowl India out for 234 on Day 1 before Sri Lanka ended their innings at 610/6. Lanka bundled India out for 299 in the second innings to win the match by 77 runs with an innings to spare.
The Tour of 1999 (Asian Test Championship)
The experimental series saw Lanka host India for the second match which was eventually won by Pakistan.
Sadagoppan Ramesh and Rahul Dravid scored hundreds as India registered 518/7 in their first innings before restricting Sri Lanka to 485 of which 242 were from Mahela Jayawardene's bat.
Sachin Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 124 in the second innings but the match ended in a draw.
Here's the full series schedule:
1st Test: July 26-30
Venue: Galle
Time: 10 AM IST
2nd Test: August 3-7
Venue: Colombo
Time: 10 AM IST
3rd Test: August 12-16
Venue: Kandy.
Time: 10 AM IST
1st ODI: August 20
Venue: Dambulla
Time: 02:30 PM IST
2nd ODI: August 24
Venue: Kandy
Time: 02:30 PM IST
3rd ODI: August 27
Venue: Kandy
Time: 02:30 PM IST
4th ODI: August 31
Venue: Colombo
Time: 02:30 PM IST
5th ODI: September 3
Venue: Colombo
Time: 02:30 PM IST
Only T20I: September 6
Venue: Colombo
Time: 07:00 PM IST
India Test Squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice captain), Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, M Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund
Sri Lanka are yet to announce their squad.
