'Not about Arshdeep; No-balls in any format a crime'

Bowling no-balls in any format is a crime, said India skipper Hardik Pandya, adding that he was not about blaming Arshdeep Singh but the young pacer needs to go back and rectify his basic errors.

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India slumped to a 16-run loss in the second T20I as Sri Lanka levelled the three-match series 1-1.

Returning to the side after missing the opener, Arshdeep looked rusty and bowled as many as five no-balls in his forgettable two-over spell, conceding 37 runs. Infact, the Indian bowlers in total sent down seven no-balls.

"You can have a good day, you can have a bad day, but you shouldn't be moving away from the basics. For Arshdeep, in this situation, it is very difficult. In past as well he's bowled no-balls," Pandya said after the loss.

"It is not about blaming him or to be too hard on him, but we know no-balls in any format is a crime."

Pandya said that India were not up to the mark in the Powerplays, both while bowling and batting.

"Both in bowling and batting, the powerplay hurt us. We made some basic errors, which we shouldn't be making at this level. Everyone knows what it is. The learning for us is we should be focussing on what we can control," he said.

On debutant Rahul Tripathi being sent to bat at number three, Pandya said: "Rahul is accustomed to playing at no. 3, and someone coming in, we want to give them a role they are comfortable with. That's why he batted at No. 3."

For Sri Lanka, captain Dasun Shanaka led from the front, smashing a quickfire 56 from 22 balls to provide his team with the late flourish and then bowled the crucial final over in which he claimed two wickets.

"We could've done well in the middle part. Game was set by the openers. Need to play well in the middle order to allow finishers to finish well," Shanaka said.

He lavished praise on Axar Patel and Suryakumar Yadav, who stitched a 91-run sixth wicket stand to bring India back in the hunt in the middle overs after a horror start.

"It's not the dew factor, it's the skill of Indian batters. They took the game away from us but still we managed to hold the nerve. Really good to defend the total especially against India in these conditions."

• SRI LANKA'S TOUR OF INDIA, 2023