India hosted Sri Lanka in 2005 for a seven-match ODI series, followed by the test series. The Indian team had relatively new faces (like Gautam Gambhir, Sreesanth, Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao, RP Singh, Jai P Yadav) while Sri Lanka had a sold side with stalwarts. Dravid was the captain of the team that took on the Lankans in the ODI series. This was also the time when Greg Chappell was the coach of the Indian team. Sachin Tendulkar was returning back to international cricket from surgery and all eyes were on him.
India started off at Nagpur with a 350 score and a big win to boot. India also had Irfan Pathan batting at No.3, an experiment that was quite successful during the period Pathan was in the team. Subsequent matches saw India chase targets posted by Sri Lanka successfully at Mohali, Jaipur, Pune, Rajkot and Vadodara. This was also the phase where the Indian team had a big streak of wins while chasing. The aggression of Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina and Dhoni combined with the solidity of Dravid, Gambhir and Tendulkar was a big factor in India's continuous successful chases.
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