SL out of step with Ashwin's rhythm

India opened their tour of Sri Lanka with a bowling performance that came much like that Rohit Sharma catch to dismiss Angelo Mathews. Against the run of play, out of a surprisingly clear blue sky, against the normal order of things, the end result of a stretch upwards, and then an acrobatic backwards and sideways. At short leg of all the places.

In a country where usually India are driven into the ground when fielding first, by misery and runs, they went at their opposition as if they came onto the field after inhaling high-octane fuel. In their last two series in Sri Lanka, whenever India have lost the toss, the home team has put up scores of 600, 520, 642 and 425.

One of those monster beatings was at this venue, in Galle, where the three-Test series between two young sides opened on Wednesday with a slightly altered script.

India restricted Sri Lanka to 183, their bowlers producing what their captain had asked for: wickets, control and composure. The day ended with R Ashwin's second five-for in a row and his career-best away figures - 6 for 46. No Indian bowler, neither Anil Kumble nor Harbhajan Singh, has enjoyed such success in the first innings of an away Test. For a bowler lampooned for the massive skew in his home and away returns until now, the rewards of Galle 2015 must feel like a giant tuck-in or earning a massive sensory overload.

Ashwin did say he was "not looking too much into what is a foreign and what is a local performance", a mindset he wanted to "put an end to". But he also added that his team had put in an "extraordinary performance" in bowling a team out on day one after losing the toss, in conditions where winning it is normally a golden ticket.

It was the two seamers who set up the first hour of play and, in hindsight, maybe the rest of the day itself. On a pitch offering them some carry, Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron bowled through the first hour, running in with purpose borrowed from the tempestuous seas that crash onto rocks just over the southwesterly curve of the ground. Ishant hit a sharp length and Aaron bowled with a sustained, though not quite express, pace in the opening spells, with Ishant digging one into Dimuth Karunaratne's ribs in his fourth over. Aaron got Kaushal Silva two balls later, with another short ball, bringing in Kumara Sangakkara with a camera team at his shoelaces and firecrackers going off on the boundary line.

When Ashwin stepped in after the first drinks break, it was 27 for 2 and the Sri Lanka batting, more edges visible than they would be happy with, was looking a little ragged. Sangakkara's wicket off Ashwin's third ball turned ragged into shredded. His bowling was the steady stuff - no tricks, no flourish. The loop was measured, drawing batsmen forward, defeating them - some with turn, others with bounce and a general scattering of their equilibrium.

Despite the presence of two older spinners in this line-up, there is no doubt about who is considered India's lead spinner. Virat Kohli, the India captain, has stated Ashwin can indeed become the bowling allrounder his team has been waiting for since the last century.

Dinesh Chandimal, the only other Sri Lanka batsman apart from Mathews to go past fifty, said the speed at which the spinners, particularly Ashwin, bowled posed problems.

"They didn't give any pace for us. They bowled really slowly," Chandimal said. "As batters, it's really difficult to get runs with the straight shots. We always had to play the sweeps and reverse sweeps. Credit to them, they bowled really well."

At the toss, both captains said they considered the pitch dry. After 86 overs of cricket, both teams believe that the sweating under the heavy tarpaulin covers for two days in a row of intermittent rain turned it to what Ashwin called "tacky", causing it to deviate, rather than bounce. "As the game goes on I think it's going to get really slow and you have to work harder to get your wickets. So I think we need to bat really well," Ashwin said.

The move to have Ashwin switch ends after lunch was roundly and soundly criticised by all stripe of pundits. Its logic rested on Ashwin's 3 for 15 off six at the break; the move was interpreted as Kohli's intention to bring Harbhajan, who had not bowled in the first session, into the game. All true. Ashwin's two overs from the far end saw Chandimal go after him, conceding 11. In the 16 overs that passed by before Ashwin returned, Supermanlike, to the pavilion end, Sri Lanka were 60 for 0.

Two other things transpired in that time - Ishant replaced Ashwin and saw Wriddhiman Saha drop Chandimal in his first over after lunch. Mathews, who had earlier flung down his bat in disgust at the fall of Lahiru Thirimane's wicket, then decided he was having none of the capitulation and decided to attack.

Ashwin offered his own explanation: "It was more about what the team required then and Harbhajan was going through a good spell from the other side, and Virat wanted me to bowl from the other side. I'm not someone who's very choosy about which end I'm bowling from. From there, I think he (Virat) wanted to swap ends and I was okay bowling from the other side. So it was a short spell and also when you play five bowlers, there are these things of short spells that happen now and then, so you've got to accept it."

It could be considered a young leader's strategic over-reach, a metaphorical captaincy no-ball. Or it could be called an almost MS Dhoni-esque move, going against the grain and general cricketing logic. Like turning to Suresh Raina after lunch at Lord's 2011, after England had been reduced to 62 for 5 by Ishant Sharma. Everyone remembers how that ended up. Fortunately for Kohli, India are not in that sort of a soup at the moment.