Debasis Sen, Colombo: It was quite an emotional moment for Percy Abheysekara at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground after the end of match today. The diehard fan of Sri Lankan cricket was presented an Indian jersey signed by all the players after the series win. Team India coach Ravi Shastri was seen throwing the signed jersey from the balcony of the Indian dressing room towards Percy, who was chanting slogans for Shastri and his players.
There were no big high fives, nor any beer hugs and wild celebrations in the dressing room after the series win. The fizz that is normally seen after an away series win was clearly missing as it was expected who was the better team. Virat and his boys took just four days precisely to clinch the three test series with a test match still to go at Kandy starting from September 12.
The mundane scenes at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground said it all as this Indian team is not satisfied with just winning a test series at home or abroad. As pointed out by Kohli, “Honestly speaking, we are not looking at winning Test matches at home and away anymore. We just want to win anywhere that we play. If we can believe enough in our abilities then we are not really bothered about where we are playing. That kind of energy I can sense in the team and the team believes that as well. We are creating a habit of winning that I think can be carried on in future as well.”
The Indian team is the on the verge of doing something special and that is to win a series abroad. The last time Virat and his team won a series away from home was in West Indies last year winning the four match test series 2-0.
On being asked about the whitewash, Virat said, “Well, it’s obviously nice to win this series again. We won this last time also, in 2015. Yes, we do have that chance, but honestly speaking, we are not looking at it that way.”
The Indian team have a break now for a couple of days before it travel to Kandy to play the third test match at Pallekele stadium.