Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara has said that India would have had a better chance of winning the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo had they chosen not to enforce the follow-on. The match, played from August 23 to 27, 2026 at the SSC in Colombo, ended in a draw, with India taking the series 1-0.
India posted 503/9 declared in their first innings. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 290, conceding a lead of 213 runs, and India enforced the follow-on. Sri Lanka batted again and reached 429/9
declared, saving the match comfortably. Across the two Sri Lankan innings, India's bowlers were required to send down 243.4 overs in hot and humid conditions.
"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 is very hot and humid, you dehydrate a lot, there is very less 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, speaking to Cricinfo.
Why did Pujara stop short of fully criticising India's decision?
Pujara acknowledged that the team management and captain likely had reasons for their choice, particularly the weather situation in Colombo during the final days of the match. He accepted that the threat of lost overs due to rain could have made enforcing the follow-on appear the more practical option at the time. The Colombo Test was the ninth occasion India enforced the follow-on against Sri Lanka and the first time they failed to convert it into a victory. India's series win kept them fifth in the World Test Championship points table.
"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 was 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 criticize because yes, I can understand that there was weather around. But in a normal scenario, I would say that don't enforce the follow-on," Pujara added.
How did Sonal Dinusha's batting shape the outcome?
Sri Lanka's resistance across both innings was built largely around Sonal Dinusha, who produced a remarkable series with the bat. In the first Test at Galle, Dinusha scored 100 and 84. In Colombo, he followed that up with 103 in the first innings and an unbeaten 133 in the second innings after the follow-on was enforced.
Across four innings in the series, Dinusha finished with 420 runs at an average of 140.00, including three centuries and one fifty, topping the series run charts. His consecutive hundreds in Colombo were central to Sri Lanka's ability to bat through the follow-on and deny India a second Test victory.
