Gary Kirsten desires surfaces the place Sri Lanka seamers ‘can win video games’ as properly

The place up to now 15 years Sri Lanka have at occasions ready ranks dustbowls at house, head coach Gary Kirsten desires surfaces extra like these seen within the Take a look at collection towards India.

Throughout each groups, seamers took 24 of the entire 67 wickets taken by bowlers on this collection – a share of roughly 36%. For Sri Lanka, Asitha Fernando was the highest wicket-taker (and second total within the collection), with ten dismissals at a median of 20. The tracks had been good for batting too, with every workforce making three lots of apiece (three for Sonal Dinusha, two for Devdutt Padikkal, one for Dhruv Jurel). Each Assessments additionally went into the fifth day, when earlier collection in Sri Lanka have generally been characterised by their fast finishes owing to spinners working via batting orders on dusty surfaces.

Kirsten made the case that “hard-working” tracks create hard-working cricketers – gamers who develop the abilities and endurance to prosper on this format.

“I am a giant fan of constructing certain that we do not put together wickets only for spinners,” Kirsten mentioned. “We need to put together wickets the place we will win video games with our seamers as properly. That is the way you develop a cricket workforce – taking part in in all situations. I used to be very impressed with the 2 wickets that had been ready for the Take a look at collection. They had been hard-working Take a look at wickets – not straightaway end result wickets.

“We wished our batters to have the ability to bat. Spinners must work laborious, and seamers are within the recreation. Within the second innings at Galle, our seamers took seven of the ten wickets. I am very inspired that our seamers are within the recreation, and I actually need to develop that extra.”

Kirsten heaped explicit reward on Fernando, who has been the lead seamer in Sri Lanka’s assault for years now. At 29, he probably has loads of cricket left in him. However there may be the query of seam-bowling assist for him. Lahiru Kumara, Sri Lanka’s solely different fast, took three wickets at 57.33 on this collection.

“He is a world-class bowler, and he is been bowling very well this collection,” Kirsten mentioned of Asitha. “He is been on prime of his recreation. However we do want extra help for him – we won’t simply depend on him. That is one thing we’re going to spend so much of time engaged on is simply understanding how we will get 20 wickets and never simply depend on spin.”

Sri Lanka’s breakout star of the collection was Sonal Dinusha, nonetheless. Kirsten mentioned of his fifth-day rearguard hundred on the SSC, that that innings would go down as probably the greatest in Sri Lanka’s historical past.

“This innings, what he was capable of obtain on day 4 and day 5, I might say [it] would go down in Sri Lankan Take a look at cricket historical past as one of many nice saves,” Kirsten mentioned. “Overlook the truth that he obtained 100 within the first innings as properly and was ready to do that. I believe it was an awesome instance to loads of cricketers within the nation as to what you are able to do at Take a look at match stage towards a very good bowling assault, following on in a tricky scenario.

“I believe it is by no means straightforward batting at six in a workforce as a result of typically you are available in underneath stress. What I used to be inspired by was after I watched him within the West Indies, I noticed that he actually thrives within the powerful conditions. I really like the way in which he performs Take a look at cricket. He thinks about it. He performs to his strengths and he is a great cricketer. He understands what the bowlers are attempting to do to him after which he makes use of his ability units to negate that.”

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply