When Kumar Sangakkara represented Sri Lanka, he was on a league of his own. He dominated the number one ranking for Test batsman for a long time and finished with Sri Lanka’s best career average ever – 57:40. Earlier this week, at the conclusion of the two-Test series against South Africa, prolific opener Dimuth Karunaratne rose to number seven in ICC Rankings for Test batsmen. That’s the highest point for a Sri Lankan since Sangakkara retired.
The two-match series against the Proteas was played on tracks that tested batsmen’s skill and technique. Even an accomplished player of the caliber of Hashim Amla found out that there were chinks in his armour as the bat-pad fielder came into play constantly when he was batting.
Karunaratne dominated the bowling during the series. Each time he walked out to the middle, he scored at least a half-century finishing the series with a grand total of 356 runs at a stunning average of 118. Others simply watched and admired. He also entered the record books in Galle becoming only the fourth Sri Lankan to carry his bat through when he posted an unbeaten 158.
Since he met his school coach Harsha De Silva and adjusted a few technical glitches during the Indian series at home, Karunaratne has been a revelation. He was unstoppable in UAE as Sri Lanka ended Pakistan’s unbeaten run since the Gulf region became their adopted home in 2010. He went onto complete 1000 Test runs in 2017, becoming the first Sri Lankan to do so since Sangakkara.
Karunaratne is solid against both spin and pace and excellent temperament enables him to bat for long hours as he has proved time and again since of late. He batted for nine hours and 15 minutes in the scorching heat of Dubai to produce his career-best score of 196. He is turning out to be a top class Test cricketer winning many waiting games.
Throughout the recent series, you saw players opting for the sweep shot as the answer against spin. The South Africans overdid it and paid the price. No doubt the sweep produces boundaries, but it is also a high-risk shot on a turning track as there is the risk of the top edges flying in the direction of fielders. Karunaratne is the best example of playing spin. He uses his feet cleverly and picks gaps rather than relying solely on the sweep shot as the counter for spin bowling.
There’s a bit of Rahul Dravid in Dimuh Karunaratne. He doesn’t get rattled when the opposition has a crack at him and bowlers try to intimidate. He just turns his back and doesn’t get involved. Hardly you see him in a heated argument with a bowler or a fielder. Off the field, he is a subdued character and that is reflected in his batting too.
There was this interesting passage of play during the Galle Test when Dale Steyn peppered him with short-pitched bowling. Compulsively he hooked one and the ball bisected the long-leg and deep fine-leg fielders and went over the ropes. Soon Karunaratne realized that his patience had given away and he made the necessary amendments. Never did he hook or pull again in the series.
Karunaratne looks very organized and he is the complete package when it comes to Test cricket. In the current squad, some can play spin well while others can play pace well. Some are good at facing leg-spin but are not so good against off-spin and vice-versa. Karunaratne is the one who has the nucleus to tackle them all. He has a simple game plan and that is to stretch the bowlers beyond their third spell and to cash in when they are tiring.
He might fail in one or two innings, but you are assured that during a series he will produce a big score. You can bank on him as he is a big hundred player like his top four knocks suggest – 196, 186, 158 and 152. The only thing lacking is a double hundred.
Karunaratne has been named as a stand-by for the ODI series and it looks like that Sri Lanka are looking to do what they did with Tilan Samaraweera during the 2011 World Cup. This clearly shows that lack of quality players in the country to play one-day cricket forcing the selectors to bring a Test specialist and experiment. Or in other words, the technique of our top order batters in ODIs is not good so we need someone to hold one end up.
That argument is well and good when you have a star-studded line-up. Hence the Samaraweera experiment was understandable as he batted in the midst of the big three – Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene. But the current ODI outfit doesn’t have that class or caliber. The selectors also seem to having not much confidence in the regular ODI players after three 5-0 drubbings last year alone.
But the question that needs to be asked is whether you could afford to play both Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne in the same side when it comes to one-day cricket.
In ODI cricket, successful teams nowadays tend to opt for explosiveness. Scoring the maximum during the Power Plays seems the way forward. India have Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and England look to Jos Buttler to partner Jason Roy to get those electric starts. So whether the Karunaratne experiment is the way forward remains to be seen.
