Sri Lanka seek batting improvement and 20 wickets to level series against India

Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva has urged his pacers to improve their performance as the hosts prepare for the second Test against India. After a heavy defeat in Galle, Sri Lanka aim to score big and take 20 wickets

Colombo: Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva has called on his fast bowlers to raise their game and bolster the side’s confidence as the hosts aim to replicate India’s template from Galle to square the series when the second game begins at the SSC Ground on Sunday.

Sri Lanka suffered a 165-run loss in Galle and are eyeing a turnaround to get crucial 12 World Test Championship (WTC) points. “It’s about putting runs on the board. That’s what India did (at Galle). For the first two days they batted and got 460 runs. We are trying to improve and get some runs and take 20 wickets.

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“We are one down and disappointed. Here we need to play well from the outset. Even though we are short on experience, we have a lot of talent. A lot of players have performed well in the Test and ‘A’ team. The pitch is quite dry and will be good for batting in the first two days. In terms of combination, we will have the same – two seamers and two spinners,” de Silva said in the pre-match press conference.

Quizzed on squad changes for the second Test, a debut for opener Kamil Mishara is on the cards, apart from a potential shuffle in the pace bowling department. “He scored a hundred in a T20 last week; if you followed him in the last few months, he has scored well. We are also looking at a left-arm pacer, maybe Vishwa Fernando,” de Silva revealed.

A recurring point of concern for Sri Lanka has been the lack of high-pace options and outright match-winning spells from their seamers on home soil. De Silva admitted the current squad remains limited in options beyond Lahiru Kumara and lead seamer Asitha Fernando.

“Even with Lahiru Kumara, we have tried very hard to get him to play injury-free. At the moment, given our resources, Lahiru Kumara is the best match to partner Asitha. Asitha’s line and length are perfect, and Lahiru Kumara has the pace. With the resources we have now, these are the best players.

“I’d also like for there to be two or three bowlers who can bowl at more than 140kph, but unfortunately we only have one bowler like that (in the Test set-up). For now I haven’t been given a huge plan about who we could bring into the Test set-up. I’m hoping we will produce more cricketers like that in future.”

He further emphasised that deploying two fast bowlers remains central to his ideal Test playing eleven. “Every match we’ve played under me, we’ve had two pace bowlers, whereas in the past, we would only bowl one. I believe pacers have a role to play in Sri Lanka. If your fast bowlers can get wickets here, they can get wickets anywhere. That’s something we have to learn quickly.

“Foreign pace bowlers have taken five wickets in Galle, for instance, but recently, none of our seamers have done that at Galle or SSC. Our fast bowlers lack that confidence. If they can raise their game a little bit – (by) a few percent – we can move forward better as a team,” he concluded.