COLOMBO: How much interest this Series has generated after getting off to a one-sided start, which was expected, can be gauged by the short length (eight minutes) of Virat Kohli‘s press conference ahead of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) ground here.

There wasn’t much to ask the India skipper and he didn’t have much to tell either. Having dominated a lacklustre Lankan team in their 304-run win at Galle, his team will now look to seal the issue here.

The present scenario is in complete contrast to the time when India last played here, in 2015. With India having just squared the series 1-1 at the P Sara Oval, the SSC hosted the ‘decider,’ which went deep into the fifth day before Virat Kohli & Co eked out a hard-fought win by 117 runs.

There could be a couple of changes to the XI for this game in the Indian XI. While Kohli confirmed that the fit-again KL Rahul would replace Abhinav Mukund, who did reasonably well as a batsman and as a fielder in the Galle Test in the opening slot, the bald nature of the surface here (Kohli felt that there was a lot of grass on it, whereas his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Chandimal termed it as a dry surface, where the ball may turn after Day Two) means that Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav may replace seam bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya who impressed on debut at Galle, hammering a quick fifty and picking up a wicket.

Sri Lanka would be boosted by the return of skipper Dinesh Chandimal, after the batsman missed the first match because of pneumonia, and the recovery shown by veteran left-arm spinner Rangana Herath after suffering a finger injury.

Chandimal’s match-turning 162 against India at Galle in 2015, and his similarly decisive hundred against Australia after the Lankans were reduced to 26 for five on Day One at this very ground last year, will give the hosts some heart ahead of what should be another big test against the world No 1 side for them.

The Lankan captain hinted that the hosts may play even two left-arm spinners in their bad to save the series, even though traditionally, the SSC has always been kind to batsmen and assisted the seamers well too. That means uncapped spinner Malinda Pushpakumara, who’s taken as many as 558 first-class wickets @ 19.85, could finally make his debut and partner the experienced Herath.

“Most probably Malinda will come into the side. Dhananjaya (de Silva) may replace Asela (Gunaratne). We’ll have to see the surface,” said Chandimal.

The captain knows that with the Lankan bowling lacking firepower, it’s the batsmen who’ll need big scores to put pressure on India. “We just want to improve as a batting unit. Everyone has scored 50-60 runs, but they couldn’t make big scores, and that’s what we’ve been discussing. We’ve been doing all the tough work (in the nets). Preparing for turning pitches, and playing reverse sweeps and sweeps. We always do the tough things in practice,” explained Chandimal.

The series has appeared so one-sided that many have already begun predicting a maiden clean sweep for India here. “Who is saying that? You can’t say that. They are a very talented team, but we aren’t going to lose 0-3. We want to go and win. We are looking to give our best and win this game, level the series and then go to the third match. We have the determination to do that,” Chandimal claimed.

Time for Chandimal and his boys to walk the talk.