India's Tour of Sri Lanka - Best Performers

After a disastrous last season in which they lost in humiliating fashion in England and Australia, India began the new season with a convincing series win over Sri Lanka. Considering it was first bilateral series between the world cup finalists after the World cup 2011, it was surprisingly low profile and failed to generate much interest. Even the noise of many vuvuzelas in stadiums couldn’t hide the fact that one day cricket is slowly but surely losing its charm.

But this is a concern of the administrators who are in danger of killing the golden goose. Focusing on the series India capped of dominant performance winning the one day series 4-1 and the lone t-20 match. Returning to the favored sub-continent conditions, the Indian batting finally found its groove and MSD had the luxury of rotating the part time spinners. India outplayed the hosts in every department.

Here are the best performers -

Virat Kohli -

With brilliant performances in the series, Kohli has cemented his position as one of the brightest talent in world cricket. His batting was a joy to watch, especially the way he treated Malinga. A century in the opening match set the tone and he followed it up with a another dazzling century in chasing a tricky 251 at Colombo. To top it off, he made a imperious 50 in the T-20 match up on a pitch where most of the batsmen struggled for runs. Over the last year Kohli has developed into a classy batsmen with maturity beyond his age. His impressive form has helped him earn many well deserved records – the most notable being fastest to 13th century.

Suresh Raina -

With 3 half centuries in the series, Raina did no harm to his reputation as an exemplary finisher. Say what you want about his performances as a test player, Raina is terrific in the shorter forms of the game. He is generally overshadowed by his more famous colleagues, but has time and again delivered when India needs him the most. A Case in point is the 3rd ODI in Colombo where India were in perilous position chasing 286 despite Gambhir’s century. Raina along with a calm Pathan at the other end shepherded the chase brilliantly and handed Sri Lanka their first defeat in a home match where they had more than 250 runs. He scored a 50 again in the 4th ODI to seal the series win for India. Raina has always made the most of limited opportunities and add to that his fielding, you can see his importance in limited over format.

Irfan Pathan -

Irfan Pathan is back – finally with consecutive Man-of-the-Match awards. Making the team only because of a injury to Vinay Kumar, Pathan seized his opportunity with both hands. He was instrumental in securing wins with both bat and ball. He was the highest wicket-taker and the most economical Indian fast bowler in the one day series, even ahead of Zaheer Khan. He played two calm and decisive knocks with the bat when the team was in trouble. Add that all up and you get the missing ingredient of Team India – an All-rounder. Pathan, when he bowls well, brings flexibility in the Indian side and on this tour gave Dhoni the choice of playing an exra batsman as the situation demanded. Here’s hoping its not a false dawn and Irfan finally lives up to his potential.