Gambhir and Kohli step up for India at Kolkata

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Whole-sale changes to the Sri Lanka squad was the talking point - 4 players were drafted to the squad. The Indians had the forced change of Kohli in place of Yuvraj. This was the first time after 5 years that India were playing without MSD and Yuvraj.

The start of the innings was unusually slow what with the first maiden bowled by an Indian bowler (Ashish Nehra) in this series. But, slowly, Tharanga and Sangakkara started a partnership which played out the seamers and then started milking the spinners (after the initial pressure) for singles. The final-overs climax was good for the Lankans which meant that the Indians were asked to chase the biggest total on the ground.

It was up to the first three batsmen on the Indian team - Sachin, Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir - who had to step up to the challenge. Once Sachin and Sehwag got out, the hopes were on Gambhir to take the Indians to the victory line. Agreed that the Sri Lankan bowlers were not so experienced but the task was a huge total to chase. Gautam and Virat absorbed the pressure and took the Indian run-chase by the horns. Sri Lanka must feel happy that they were able to try out their young guns and all of them must have learnt quite a bit in this series.

The Indian team showed that there was some talent in the bench strength (Kohli, Karthik, Pathan brothers) that can be honed for the World Cup 2011.