India-Sri Lanka test series: Top 5 Indian performers

New Delhi: The Indian cricket team, after a gap of more than 22 years, finally won a bilateral test series against Sri Lanka on the latter's soil.It was also the first full fledged series for Team India's new test captain Virat Kohli, since he took over the realm of the team from Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Let's take a look on some of the best performances by Indian players during the three match test series. 1) Ravinchandran Ashwin:The off spinner could be termed as the best performer for Team India during the three match test series against Sri Lanka.He took a total of 21 wickets, most by an Indian bowler in Sri Lanka. The earlier record was held by another spinner Anil Kumble who took 20 wickets in Sri Lanka in 2005.Ashwin, who had pretty ordinary outings before the start of the Sri Lanka series, returned to his best form and bamboozled the Sri Lankan batsmen on the spin friendly pitches. The offfie took 10 wickets at Galle and follwed it by seven-wicket hauls at P Sara Oval at Colombo and a four-wicket haul at SSC ground, also at Colombo.Ravichandran Ashwin scored his fifth test half-century at the most crucial moment, which helped India gain control of the third Test. Ashwin's contribution of 58 runs came at a moment when India were looking to take their lead to past 350 at least in order to put pressure on the hosts in the fourth innings. Ashwin was rightly awarded the 'Man of the Series' for his stellar performance for the fourth time in his career.2) Cheteshwar Pujara: The cricketer who was termed as the new ‘Wall' of Team India after the retirement of Rahul Dravid has made a strong statement in his comeback test match.He was asked to open the Indian batting along with KL Rahul after both Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay injured themselves in earlier test.Pujara, under difficult batting conditions, made 145 not out and helped India reach a big score in the first innings of the final test match.He was the fourth Indian batsmen to bat throughout the innings and registered his name among the select club of batsmen. Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag have are other three Indian batsmen who have managed this feat.However, he was not able to add any run in the second innings and was clean bowled by Dhammika Prasad. It will now be a tough choice for the Indian selectors as they will have a large pool of players to choose from.3) Virat Kohli: The newly appointed test captain has finally ended the 22 year long wait to win a test series in Sri Lanka. Virat has led from the front in this series scoring over 200 runs.Virat scored 233 run in three tests that also include a score of 103 in the first innings at Galle. Virat is known to be an aggressive cricketer and his decisions taken during the series was questioned by many cricket experts but finally he proved them wrong by winning the series 2-1. One such decision was to include Stuart Binny in the team after the surprise loss of India in the first test match at Galle.4) Ishant Sharma: Ishant Sharma, with his aggressive behaviour, has turned out to the new 'bad boy' of Indian cricket team. He may got involved in some tussle with the Sri Lankan players particularly Dhammika Prasad.However the senior most bowler of Team India has struck when it mattered most. He took a total of 13 wickets and also completed 200 test wickets. Ishant bowled a fiery spells in both the innings of the third test match and did not allow Sri Lankan openers to settle down.5) Amit Mishra: The leg spinner who made a comeback into the national team after wait of four long years made a unique record on return. He became the first Indian cricketer to score 150+ runs and claim 15 wickets in a 3 match Test series. He was taken in to the team as a third spinner behind R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh but the the leggie with his performance has indeed made a statement. Mishra took five wickets at Galle and then followed it by seven wickets at P Sara Oval and three wickets at SSC.Apart from it, he scored valuable half century in the first innings at the final test match to provide India a strong position in the match from where India succeeded in registering a series win after 22 years in Sri Lanka.