Sri Lanka’s left-handed opener Dimuth Karunaratne isn’t leaving any stone unturned to counter Indian spin-duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the upcoming 3-match Test series against India.
Karunaratne was the leading scorer with Lankan 285 runs in their 0-3 loss to India earlier this year, including a magnificent 141 in the second innings of the first Test. He said, “I know Jadeja and Ashwin are both hungry for wickets. Every time they bowl it’s about sticking to the basics. If I don’t give them any chance, they will try to do something else. If we need them to change the field you have to do something extra.”
He further added, “That’s my game plan. I wait for the loose ones and I will stick to that. If it does not work I will think out of the box and give some extra pressure to the bowlers.”
The southpaw said that the 141 in the second innings against India was confidence-boosting. He said, “That hundred helped me a lot to take some confidence to Pakistan. It’s not an easy wicket to bat in second innings. I was determined to get some runs especially against Ashwin, their wicket-taking bowler on that pitch. I was thinking to play first five overs without big shots. I realized it’s not easy. I played a lot of sweeps and reverse sweeps and they had to change the field position. That’s my style, to play in my comfort zone and not go for anything else. That’s key and I can bat longer period. That’s my game plan.”
Karunaratne was scalped by Ashwin twice and once by Jadeja in their home series, but this time he prepared himself by batting on dusty wickets back home. He said, “We have practiced on dusty wickets and have another five days before the Test. We will prepare for the good spin attack.”
Sharing his strategies against the likes of Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, he said: “I played them in the last series. I have a few plans and I know what they’re going to do with me. I’ve prepared well. I will stick to that plan, if it needs to be changed I will go and do it.”
Sri Lanka played a third-string Board President’s XI in the two-day match but Dimuth said it did not matter as their main objective of getting runs was fulfilled. He said, “We need a bit of confidence going into the series as apart from Angelo and Rangana nobody else has played here. It was good batting-friendly conditions and the ball was not turning much, so most of us batsmen got runs. It’s all about runs. It doesn’t matter if they bowl fast or slow, if they bowl good line and length that’s the most the difficult part for a batsman. They bowled really in good areas.”
