India, Aug. 23 -- At Colombo's Sinhalese Sports Club ground, the batters always love the chance to get first strike - the average first innings score there is 300-plus. On Sunday, India's batters enjoyed that opportunity when captain Shubman Gill called correctly in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

With good runs under their belt in last week's first Test win at Galle, KL Rahul and Co came out to bat oozing with confidence. The conditions were perfect too. The curator had prepared a pitch with good bounce for the stroke players to feast on, and it was bright and sunny while the bowlers dealt with energy-sapping heat and humidity.

In such cases, when everything is loaded in your favour, the fear is that the player can get carried away....