India vs Sri Lanka: Five big takeaways: From Hardik Pandya to Shikhar Dhawan

Bengaluru, August 14: The Test series between India and Sri Lanka, which the visitors won comprehensively, resembled a lopsided boxing bout with the hosts getting outplayed in every department.

India registered their first-ever 3-0 away series whitewash without breaking any sweat. After a brief domestic time, India will begin a series of foreign tours - South Africa, England and Australia - and the series against Sri Lanka has offered some bright portends.

HARDIK PANDYA

The Baroda all-rounder made his Test debut in the Galle Test and made an immediate impression with a fifty. In the third Test Pallekele, Pandya became the first Indian batsman to score a hundred in one session en route to his quick 108. Pandya the batsman might have been impressive thus far, but skipper Virat Kohli used Pandya the bowler rather sporadically, courtesy the nature of pitches in Sri Lanka. In the coming months though, Pandya's effort with the ball too will be crucial for India. Poeple have already started comparing him to Kapil Dev. But those premature comparisons apart, he has given some hope of a long-term all-rounder.

KULDEEP YADAV

The chinaman bowler played the third Test at Pallekele because Ravindra Jadeja had to sit out due to ban. Yadav did impress with a four-wicket haul in the first innings. He will certainly be the third spinner behind R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the pecking order. But in him, India will have a back-up, attacking option in the long, tough season ahead.

MOHAMMAD SHAMI

The pacer had to sit out due to a knee injury after the Mohali Test against England in November last year. Since recovering from the sniggle, Shami has made some one-day appearances. But this was his first full Test series. He picked up nine wickets from three Tests and bowled with sustained accuracy, control and pace. When India go abroad, he will be Kohli's go-to man and this series underlined Shami's return to the top of his game. There can't be a better news.

KL RAHUL

The opener missed the first Test owing to viral fever but he fell seamlessly into the right gear in the second Test at Colombo. He played two innings over two Tests and scored as many fifties, also becoming the first Indian batsman to score seven Test fifties on the trot. He may soon have to convert some of them into three-figure scores, but that minor glitch apart Rahul, for the time being, has cemented his place at the totem pole position, pushing M Vijay to third in the order of openers.

SHIKHAR DHAWAN

The dashing left-hander's Test career seemed to have come to a standstill after selectors axed him following the Kolkata Test against New Zealand in September last year. In the interim between the Galle Tests (2015 and 2017), Dhawan had just one fifty from 14 innings - an 84 against the West Indies in the first Test at Antigua. However, Vijay's injury gave him a chance to enter the playing eleven in Sri Lanka and in his first Test innings in nearly a year, the Delhiite made 190 off 168 balls. There was another hundred at Pallekele. He looks rejuvenated now. The team think tank will have to ponder hard and long about the way forward once Vijay returns from injury.