Not a club match: Ex-India star slams Gill’s India after Sonal Dinusha backlash

Former India batsman Mohammad Kaif has questioned Shubman Gill’s India for failing to find a consistent path through Sonal Dinusha in the second Test against Sri Lanka. Kaif believes the visitors had enough support and intelligence around them to identify and attack the Sri Lankan batsman’s obvious weakness.

Dinusha scored an unbeaten 133 in Colombo to help Sri Lanka hold India to a draw after following. During a discussion on Sony Sports, Kaif said that the responsibility goes beyond Gill and rests with the Indian bowling group and coaching staff as a whole.

SL vs IND 2nd Test Day 5: Highlights

“Every batsman has a deficiency somewhere. You have to find where the deficiency is. I am not talking about Gill. I am talking about the entire bowling unit and even the coaching staff. They all sit together and discuss that he scored a hundred in Galle and where can we catch him when he comes now,” Kaif said.

“Tactically I agree that they attacked less, the pitch was open yesterday and the drive ball was not looked at. Saransh Jain dismissed him with that after his hundred. Mohammed Siraj bowled a full ball and left it because he doesn’t like to play drive. He doesn’t like to play shots there,” he added.

Kaif felt that Indian sources made their failure to exploit this weakness even more puzzling. Dinusha already showed in the first innings against India that a fuller line-up could create an opportunity when debutant off-spinner Saransh Jain dismissed him for 103.

“You’re talking about India. It’s not a club game you’ve come late for. There’s a video analyst sitting, a statistician sitting and six or seven coaches sitting,” he added.

KAIF QUESTIONS INDIA PLAN vs DINUSHA

The former India batsman also pointed to the limited experience of India’s junior bowlers in operating deep into Test matches, especially on pitches that change throughout the game.

“Our modern young bowlers very rarely play on a pitch like this. They don’t play on the fifth day. A Test match is not that long. So they also don’t know how to deal with it and we haven’t seen this batting,” Kaif said.

However he felt Dinusha was no longer an unknown quantity by the time India entered the second Test.

“They didn’t see him at all. So there was a bit of a surprise as well. The mistake happened in the second Test match. I agree you didn’t see him in the first Test match,” remarked Kaif.

“You won’t find a single boundary with a cover drive in the second Test match. He played pull, sweep, reverse sweep but not cover drive.”

Dinusha ended the two-Test series with 420 runs at an average of 140 and was named man of the match after scoring centuries in both innings in Colombo.

INDIA’S WTC ROAD IS HARDER

India won the two-Test series 1-0 after their 165-run victory in Galle, but a draw in Colombo denied Gill’s side another win at the WTC. The result also highlighted how important the upcoming matches will be in India’s quest to reach the 2027 Test World Cup final.

India’s next engagement at the WTC will come in New Zealand where they will play two Tests in Wellington from November 19-23 and Christchurch from November 27-December 1. The team will then face Australia in five Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from January 2027.

For Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir, the task now is to turn dominance in large stretches in Sri Lanka into consistent wins. A draw in Colombo leaves India with less room for error as they bid for another WTC final.

– The end

Issued by:

Debodinna Chakraborty

Published on:

28 Aug 2026 09:05 IST