Asanka Gurusinha, a member of the 1996 World Cup- winning Sri Lankan side, and the team’s cricket manager now, admitted that the hosts bowlers did not perform consistently during the first Test’s opening day.
“We have to be honest that we didn’t bowl well. Nuwan Pradeep was the most outstanding I thought. It’s a really good batting wicket. We bowled on both sides of the wicket as well. Shikhar Dhawan just took over the game. His 190 was one reason we find ourselves in this situation,” Gurusinha said.
Stating that Pradeep remains the squad’s first-choice seamer, Gurusinha added that going in with four bowlers was the right choice. “We did discuss playing the additional bowler, but eventually decided to stick to this combination. Unless you have someone like (Muttiah) Muralitharan I don’t think you can do something about it.”
Gurusinha said that it would be ideal if a few batsmen could also turn their arm over. “Not many of our top order guys can bowl. Those days we had guys like Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva, who could bowl and take wickets.
“That’s a luxury that India has and we don’t. So we are trying to build that all-rounder. We need at least one or two batsmen who can bowl. We have asked guys like Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva and Danushka Gunathilaka to bowl more,” Gurusinha said.
Speaking about Sri Lanka’s prospects in the remainder of the match, Gurusinha said: “You never know. This is Galle and after scoring 600 runs you can still lose a Test match. Our batsmen have to just to go out and play good cricket. Let’s see what happens on the last two days.”
