Distinguished as a stylish fast bowler in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rumesh Ratnayake smiles at the term ‘India-Sri Lanka rivalry’. He fine-tunes it to call it ‘friendly rivalry’.
Ratnayake, 53, who is accompanying the Sri Lanka team as the bowling coach, spoke about his side’s preparations. Excerpts:
Preparation for reverse swing: We have done all that we could do to counter-attack, whatever we would expect in the Test series, and reverse swing is one of the things which we worked on.
Kuldeep and Sandakan: It depends whether we will play him (Kuldeep). They are very similar being chinaman bowlers and also different.
Home series loss: We are taking it as a challenge and see what we can improve. We have discussed areas of batting and bowling. We know their players. I hope our strategies will work.
Adjustments by new players: The adjustments have not been all that great as it rained in Sri Lanka. The new players have been in the circuit for a while. India is new to them as we are touring for a Test series after eight years. We have not won a Test in India. That’s one thing we are looking for.
Consulting India think-tank on transition phase: Certainly that’s an option. The management consists of Ravi (Shastri), (Bharat) Arun and others whom I have played against. I will certainly meet them after matches. We know each other from the age of 16-17.
India-Lanka rivalry over the years: You may call it a friendly rivalry... the unfortunate thing is we have not won a Test here. It’s still healthy. Gained a lot from India. Thankful for that.
Angelo Mathews not bowling: He has not bowled in a Test for a while. I don’t think he will bowl, that I know for sure. We will be looking him to bowl in only ODIs.
All-rounder options: Angelo comes in as a batsman. We have Dasun Shanaka and Dhananjaya de Silva to fill in that role. Maybe Roshen Silva can come in.
