Opener Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan slammed centuries to help India humiliate Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 169 runs in the first One-Day International in Cuttack, on Sunday.
Virat Kohli dropped a position to 11th leaving India with no batsmen in the top 10 of the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, in the latest update of the ICC Player Rankings released by the International Cricket Council on Tuesday.
In an extraordinary twist to the game, India on Saturday capitulated to an embarassing 63-run defeat in the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka.
India goes into the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Friday hoping to register their first series victory in the island nation in 22 years.
Barring Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, all players have declared their allegiances to IPL franchises over their respective countries' domestic sides ahead of the upcoming Champions League Twenty20.
The Virat Kohli-led team must take inspiration from the last trip to Sri Lanka, in 2010, when India beat Sri Lanka by five wickets, thanks to hundreds from Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman.
Sri Lanka are never anybody's pre-tournament favourites but when the dust settles there they are.
Sri Lanka won the just-concluded Asia Cup, but none of their players figure in Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji's most valuable player index. Check it out.
The International Cricket Council released the provisional squads of the 12 teams for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand on Friday. However, co-hosts Australia and minnows Ireland decided against releasing the provisional list although they submitted 30 names to the parent body within the stipulated deadline.
After what at one stage earlier this month looked like a vast game of musical chairs, reigning champions India ended up topping the world rankings when the five-month countdown to the 2015 World Cup started on Sunday.
IPL Action VIII: These players went unsold
