While he can see why India enforced the follow-on against Sri Lanka in the second Test in Colombo, former batter Cheteshwar Pujara stated that the Shubman Gill-led team might have had a better chance of winning the game if they hadn't.

India declared and put Sri Lanka in to bat after amassing 503/9 in the first innings. After skittling out the hosts for 290 in the first innings, India forced a follow-on by sending them to bat once again.  

This time, though, Sri Lanka held on thanks to the heroics of Sonal Dinusha, who struck hundreds in each innings, while the hosts managed to survive and end up with a tie.

“I genuinely feel that if India hadn’t enforced the follow-on, they had a better chance of winning this game. Because if you look at this bowling line-up, when you have bowled 90 overs in Sri Lankan conditions, which are very hot and humid, you dehydrate a lot, and there is very little time for a player to recover. And then when you get onto the field for another, say, 80-90 overs, and you have that pressure of picking up 10 wickets.

I know there was plenty of time left in the game, but there is pressure. Because you are bowling on a pitch which is still good to bat on. And that’s why I felt that India shouldn’t have enforced the follow-on and should have batted for at least 30-40 overs,” Pujara said to Cricinfo.

Pujara further stated that Indian captain Shubman Gill and Indian team management would’ve taken the call after thinking about what the weather was like, which wasn’t looking good.

He felt that had the weather not been playing its tricks, India would’ve batted again and kept the Sri Lankans out in hot and humid conditions a bit more.

“It’s easier to say now because I am sure the Indian team management and the captain would have also had an eye on how the weather was. And the weather wasn’t looking good. And that’s the reason I think they might have thought that we may not get enough number of overs in the next couple of days. And let’s try and put Sri Lanka in and then try and win the game as early as possible. But I still feel if there wasn’t any weather around, it would be pretty straightforward.

Try and bat; keep Sri Lankan batters on the field for some time. Try and bowl for a session on day four. And then use the conditions on day five, where it’s never easy to bat. So yeah, I thought it was slightly tough to criticise because, yes, I can understand that there was weather around. But in a normal scenario, I would say that you don’t enforce the follow-on,” he added.

India pocketed the two-Test series 1-0, having won the first Test in Galle.

(Cricinfo inputs)