Though the hosts Sri Lanka fought well in the second Test against England at Kandy, they again disappointed with a defeat but this time it was a very close one. After losing the Test series, Sri Lankan head coach Chandika Hathurusingha is focusing on the positive points and claims that they have to learn from mistakes.
While the third and final Test of series is still to be played, England has secured the Test series by winning the first two games. After a 211-run victory in the first Test at Galle, England won this second Test by 57 runs. It is England’s first ever Test series victory on the Sri Lankan soil since 2001.
Despite their disappointing performances in recent cricket, Hathurusingha is focusing on the positive points. Accepting their mistakes, the Sri Lankan head coach added that they can easily correct those mistakes.
After the second Test match, Hathurusingha said, “We’re looking at the bigger picture. This is the first series we lost this year. We won against South Africa 2-0. In these two games, there were very close games. We had the opportunity to win both games at times. England played better cricket than us. We have to accept that. We have to learn from these mistakes. I think those mistakes we can easily correct. It’s about certain decisions. The skill is still there – that’s what I’m banking on. That’s the hope that I have with this team.”
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The Sri Lankan head coach has also pointed out the turning point of the game and that was the 60-run partnership for the last wicket between Sam Curran and James Anderson in the first innings of the match.
Hathurusingha added, “If you remember this game, I think we lost it in the first innings. When we took nine wickets – the last wicket put on 60, and the way they made runs was disappointing. In the second innings there, were times where we were in the game and we let them off the hook. There was no pressure. Those are the things that are key for us, to win consistently away from home, or at home. Those are the things we need to discuss.”
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The Sri Lankan coach has also pointed out that English lower-order batting, especially Ben Foakes, has become the difference among the two teams.
The 50-year-old said, “Both Test matches we got the first five wickets for less than 150, if I remember correctly. There are two things. They batted well, especially Foakes, who was the difference among the two teams in both Test matches. He batted really, really well in these conditions. We need to consistently apply pressure to win Test matches. It’s not easy to have a bad session or a bad spell on these kinds of wickets. Especially on sporting wickets like this.”
Talking about this spin-friendly pitch, on which England adapted very well and won this Test, Hathurusingha claimed that they were prepared for that but failed to execute properly. However, he also feels that their failures against spin aren’t a long-standing thing.
Hathurusingha said, “I’m not sure who spoke about the pitch before the match started, but this is a turning wicket for sure and we knew that it was going to be turning. It was a good, sporting wicket. It held up very well all five days, to be honest. I don’t think our guys came with a pre-conceived idea that it’s going to turn – we knew it was going to turn and we prepared for that. There are certain ways you need to play on these kinds of wickets. You can’t play conventionally. You’ll notice both teams played differently. The better team adapted to this and won the game.
“Our failures against spin aren’t a long-standing thing. When I go to a selection meeting, there’s an issue where you have to think about how many spinners are there to fight for one place. We will have to think about that. We felt Rangana Herath’s absence in this match. We played on these kinds of pitches only in the last two series. If you looked at what it was like before, we played on batting tracks. When we had Muralitharan we knew he’d take wickets on anything. When you score on these pitches it’s hard to compare with what batsmen used to score. If the team total is 250 or 290, a fifty is a good score.”
In the recent days, Sri Lankan fielding has not been upto the mark. In the first Test, the Sri Lankan missed few good chances. Though they had better performances in the Kandy Test, the Sri Lankan coach believes they have to put more focus in this particular area.
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Hathurusingha said on their recent weak fielding, “I completely agree that fielding has been an issue for us for a long time in every format. I think it’s a big picture thing, again. The guys who are not fielding well up to the mark, are the same kinds of players who are coming through the system. They are not athletic enough or skilled enough to do that kind of fielding. We need to address that. We need to look at fielding as a number one thing. Most of the time we look at either bowling or batting – and then you ignore sometimes about the fielding. But we need to look at that very seriously when we select. We need to look at their ability to contribute in the field.”
Sri Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal missed the second Test due to having complained of a grade one tear. Speaking about his chance for playing the third and final Test of the series at Colombo (SSC), which will begin on November 23, Hathurusingha said if Chandimal passes out the fitness test, he will be available for the selection.
The Sri Lankan head coach said, “He’s [Chandimal] doing a fitness test tomorrow. Then we will get the result. If he passes, most likely he will be available for selection. I haven’t spoken to the selectors because the selectors pick the squad for all three Test matches. I haven’t spoken to them yet about the squad.”
