"They were brave enough to bowl up to the batters" - Gautam Gambhir lauds Madushanka and Rajitha's performances

Gautam Gambhir has lauded the Sri Lankan seamers for being brave enough to pitch the ball up and rocking India's batting with early wickets in the second T20I between the two sides.

The Lankan Lions set a massive 207-run target for the Men in Blue after being asked to bat first in Pune on Thursday, January 5. Their seamers then reduced Hardik Pandya and Co. to 34/4 in the fifth over and they eventually won the match by 16 runs.

While reviewing the game on Star Sports, Gambhir was all praise for Kasun Rajitha and Dilshan Madushanka, elaborating:

"Both Rajitha and Madushanka - they used the conditions really well. In fact, they were brave enough to bowl up to the batters and were trying to swing the ball. We all know that when it's swinging, you can get the best in trouble and that is what they did."

The former Indian opener acknowledged that the hosts were under pressure while chasing a mammoth total but pointed out that the Sri Lankan bowlers cannot be denied credit, saying:

"Probably some of the bad shots as well. I thought that probably India were always under pressure chasing 206 and that's pretty natural but you have to give credit to the bowlers."

Gambhir added:

"Some of those dismissals were like Test match lengths. So I feel you have got to give credit to the Sri Lankan bowlers, especially because they have been very, very brave upfront with the new ball."

Rajitha castled Ishan Kishan with the first delivery he bowled and had Shubman Gill caught at mid-on off the final ball of the same over. Madushanka had Rahul Tripathi caught behind off the first ball of the next over to put the hosts well behind the eight ball in the run chase.

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"You can easily go defensive" - Gautam Gambhir lauds Dasun Shanaka's captaincy

Dilshan Madushanka returned later to pick up the vital wicket of Suryakumar Yadav. [P/C: BCCI]

Gambhir was also appreciative of Dasun Shanaka's captaincy, explaining:

"You can easily go defensive. You can bring your third man fielder up, you can have deep square leg, deep mid wicket and all those guys to go defensive but Shanaka was very good with the captaincy as well."

Gambhir added that the field placements suggested that Sri Lanka were looking to go for the kill, observing:

"He always had that slip because if you have got 206, doesn't mean you can go defensive and that's the reason why India lost those five wickets because Sri Lanka still had that mindset. It's not only about bowling short, it's about setting those fields which can give that signal that you are still looking to take wickets."

India came back into the game through a 91-run partnership between Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel after they were reduced to 57/5 after 9.1 overs. However, Madushanka had the former caught at long-on to give the visitors the ascendancy before Shanaka put the last nail in the coffin by dismissing Axar and Shivam Mavi in the final over.