Kumble rues failures with bat

Virender Sehwag was the only India batsman to score a century in the series

India captain Anil Kumble blamed his side’s batting for the Test series defeat in Sri Lanka.

The tourists were beaten by eight wickets in Colombo on Monday, handing Sri Lanka a 2-1 series win, leaving Kumble to rue the lack of quality with the bat.

Although Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were the two leading runs-scorers in the series, the former was the only player to post a century - a brilliant unbeaten 201 which laid the foundations of India’s second Test win.

“You cannot lose five wickets in the first 40 overs of a Test,” said Kumble. “That happened to us quite regularly in this series, which is something we need to think about.

“The batsmen did not do well and that cost us the series. The middle order not getting the runs proved critical. Our batting was never consistent.

“Even in Galle, where we were 170 for no loss and should have made 400.

“It is not Sachin (Tendulkar) and Sourav (Ganguly) alone, it is important for everyone to contribute. The middle and lower order let us down.

“Overall we did not play quality cricket to win the series.”

Kumble paid tribute to Sri Lanka’s spin duo, veteran Muttiah Muralitharan and youngster Ajantha Mendis, who between them took 47 wickets in the series.

“For a new batsman to go in straight away and face two spinners is never easy,” he said.

“People got starts, if they had converted it would have been a different story. I do not want to give excuses.

“It was not easy to pick runs when Mendis and Murali were bowling together. The pressure they created made it tough. Mendis is no mystery, but it was a great effort to pick 26 wickets.”

However, the spinner was able to take some positives from the defeat, and knows there is plenty of time to put things right before the four-Test home series against Australia in October.

“The bowlers poured their hearts out and it was tough on them,” Kumble added.

“Ishant (Sharma) was brilliant, Zaheer (Khan) showed a lot of character. And Bhajji’s (Harbhajan Singh) performance after what had happened to him in the last two months was exceptional.

“But it is important that everyone contributes.”

Victorious Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene hailed the team ethic shown by his troops throughout the series.

“It was a very hard series and it drained a lot out of us,” he said.

“I thought the difference was that we had contributions from different players in the series. Whenever we needed someone to put their hand up they did.

“We knew we had to control those guys in the middle because that’s where their nucleus is.”