Sri Lankan spinner Tharindu Kaushal (right) celebrates with teammates after dismissing Indian captain Virat Kohli during the fourth day of the first Test at the Galle stadium yesterday. (AFP)

Agencies/Galle, Sri Lanka

India captain Virat Kohli slammed his team’s batsmen for lack of intent during their failed chase of 176 in the opening Test at Galle and said the touring side did not do enough to counter Sri Lanka’s spin threat.
India dominated most of the match after dismissing Sri Lanka for 183 on the first day and taking a first-innings lead of 192 but Dinesh Chandimal’s swashbuckling unbeaten 162 allowed the hosts to stage a fightback.
The experienced Rangana Herath picked up seven wickets while young off-spinner Tharindu Kaushal took three to bundle out India for 112 and power Sri Lanka to a spectacular comeback win by 63 runs. “We did not counter what was being thrown at us. The need of the hour was to take calculated risk when you are chasing a small total,” Kohli told reporters.
“The intent has to be there which I think was lacking. It’s something we need to improve on. It was a case of us not playing fearless cricket and not going out there and being positive. We have been let down by our batting today. There are no excuses.”
The hosts, who lost their last Test series at home to Pakistan, put immense pressure on India with tight bowling and smart catches in the first session yesterday. The batsmen failed to find scoring opportunities, with first-innings centurion Shikhar Dhawan taking 36 balls to score his first run. That came from a streaky four with the ball narrowly missing the leg stump after taking an edge.
The lack of runs allowed Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews to surround the batsmen with close fielders, hastening India’s capitulation. “We have had batting collapses in the past as well where we have lost wickets in bunches,” Kohli added.
“Every time if you sit down and analyse it’s been because we have ended up being too tentative. Today was a classic example of guys not backing themselves enough to express their ability out there. You have to do something to disrupt a bowler’s length.”
“We got no one to blame, but ourselves. Credit to Angelo Mathews and his team for playing good cricket today. We failed to capitalise after taking the first five wickets (in the second innings) and Sri Lanka dominated from there. One bad session and things can turn around quickly, that is Test cricket,” Kohli rued.
The skipper was however, pleased with the performance of the Indian bowlers and praised them for taking 20 Lankan wickets. “Our bowling in the second innings was spot on, infact in both innings. We were able to take 20 wickets which is important. As we had led from first innings our spinners went on attacking mode to take wickets,” he said.  “They countered that by playing fearless cricket. Just an hour and a half of bad session for us cost us the match.”
Speaking about Rohit Sharma’s recent poor run in the Test arena, Kohli said, “It is important to back your best players. People whom you think can be match winners for you. The reason Rohit started getting more chances is because Cheteshwar Pujara was going through a phase where he wasn’t getting too many runs. So it was a case of giving another batsman a chance.”
“Now Rohit has got three to four chances. The idea was to persist with him. We surely need to sit and discuss as a batting unit as a whole, what the mindset is like and what are they willing to execute the plans we want them to,” he added.
Kohli also praised Chandimal, who received the man of the match award for his match-winning efforts with the bat. “I am not shocked. Chandimal is a good player and we all know he is talented. He came into the squad and performed pretty well, he then had a tough phase in his career and again he delivered for his side. He is doing justice to his talent,” the 26-year-old said.
“We thought the wicket would be more difficult to bat, but credit to the way Dinesh and the rest batted. They really kept Sri Lanka in the hunt.”