Sri Lanka’s retired speedster Chaminda Vaas observed India’s rebuilding process under Virat Kohli and praised the aggressive brand of cricket they have played so far. Under Kohli, India have played five Tests, earning their first win in Colombo after a thoroughly dominant performance against Sri Lanka. Kohli’s predecessor, MS Dhoni, had always preferred a more cautious approach to team selection and played seven batsmen four bowlers.
Kohli, however, feels the need to attack to create chances and adopted the five-bowlers strategy. In the first Test in Galle, Kohli had three spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra and two pacers. However, the failure of his batsmen prompted him to replace Harbhajan with all-rounder Stuart Binny in Colombo.
“It is good that India are playing aggressive cricket. All good sides do, especially when they play with five bowlers. They are rebuilding under Virat Kohli and I like their aggressive brand of cricket. Playing five bowlers gives a certain balance to the teams. But that is not always possible. Then different combinations are tried out. There may not be proper all-rounders in there, but all good sides have players who can perform dual roles,” said Vaas,” Vaas was quoted as saying.
Vaas pointed out that the Indians were bogged down when the match turned on its head courtesy a blinder-of-a-knock from Dinesh Chandimal but did well to bounce back in Colombo. The highly-successful former Sri Lankan pacer reckoned that the hosts will have to play really good cricket to beat Kohli & Co. again.
“Batsmen tend to struggle in fourth innings whenever they are facing indifferent targets. It was a high total for Sri Lanka and they couldn’t cope with it. Something similar happened with India in Galle too. They were just chasing 176, a very small total, but they got bogged down and paid the price. They got bogged down after the match turned against them. But they didn’t let that happen again. Sri Lanka will have to play very good cricket to try to beat them again,” he said.
Vaas lauded the Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara who called it a day after 15 years of his service to the sport. Vaas felt Sangakkara was the best batsman to have played for the country and his proficiency as an all-rounder, keeping wickets and performing with the bat, allowed them to include an extra batsman or bowler for many years. The pacer also shared one of his most cherished memories with the champion stumper.
“He (Sangakkara) was the greatest batsman Sri Lankan cricket has produced and there’s no denying that. He has always given his hundred percent for the game and he has played it in the right spirit. For Sri Lanka, Sangakkara was an all-rounder, keeping wickets and performing with the bat as well. That allowed us to play an extra batsman or bowler for many years when he used to do both those roles,” Vaas said.
“One of my most cherished memories about him keeping wickets is when he used to regularly run up in between overs and talk to me about what different batsmen are doing. He would talk about certain points, and not just with me, but other bowlers as well. It makes for an interesting contribution because you get a point of view from behind the stumps as well,” said the former pacer.
