Arjuna Ranatunga got under the skin of the Australians when none dared. Comments like that Shane Warne was an ‘overrated bowler’ and Mark Waugh was ‘an average batsman’ stung his greatest rivals. Sri Lanka’s young wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella too seem to be heading the same direction.
Many have compared his antics to that of Kumar Sangakkara, another product of Trinity College. But Dickwella’s street smart frolics are more like those of Ranatunga, who never shied away from an opportunity to get under the skin of his opponents. Sangakkara picked his fights whereas Ranatunga wasn’t afraid to take on anyone.
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Dickwella’s street smartness is such that during the recent Pakistan series he is believed to have sledged Yasir Shah in Urdu having picked up a few Udru lines and jotted them down on a piece of paper.
What Dickwella can learn from Ranatunga is not allowing his on field antics to affect the game. Often Ranatunga finished off the job at hand rather than leaving it to others. In Calcutta, with Indian seamers breathing fire, Dickwella gave away his wickets having fought a remarkable battle for over an hour.
Nevertheless, take nothing away from him. He is only 24 and you can expect him to get better with time. In the first Test, he earned the applauds of everyone for his presence of mind and not taking a back foot during the heat of the battle. He was provoked and he intimidated the Indian players back.
Even the umpires failed to notice that Virat Kohli had placed three fielders behind square on the leg-side. Dickwella made most of the opportunity. He stepped outside off-stump to Mohammad Shami and scooped one over the square-leg fielder before pointing to the umpire the extra fielder and it was called a no ball.
Kohli intervened at that moment asking the batsman to mind his own business. That stared the altercations. Soon the slip cordon was involved, Ravichandran Ashwin was all over the place hurling a few verbals before Mohammad Shami, the local boy from Calcutta joined in.
Dickwella at one point told Shami to withdraw and then forced him to wait at the start of his run up with time fast running out.
The fans were having quite a chuckle at his antics, but the team management was on an edge as they knew that Dickwella needs to pick up just one demerit point to earn a lengthy four match suspension.
Although he didn’t quite manage to see his team through, India lost out about three overs due to Dickwella’s time wasting tactics and it proved to be massive at the end.
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Dickwella was doing the job his team-mates should have been doing. When Dasun Shanaka got hit on the chest by a Mohammad Shami delivery, he was willing to get on with the game. But it was Dickwella, who sensed an opportunity for more time wasting and called in the physio.
India is world’s number one ranked team and Dickwella has not only taken them on but has come on top as well.
As Trinity’s captain, he achieved some remarkable feats. He won the league, one-day and T-20 competitions before going onto leading the team into victory in the Big Match against St. Anthony’s. It was the first time Trinity won in 35 years. You can expect him to do great things in Sri Lankan colour as well. Virat Kohli thinks so.
Dickwella earned the respect of the Indian captain, who had immense praise for the youngster. “I like to see that character. I liked that competitiveness on the field. He is someone who takes lot of pride in his cricket, impressed with what I have seen so far from the last series as well,” Kohli told journalists.
“He has got great ability to do something very special for Sri Lankan cricket. I like to see that competitiveness on the field. In the heat of things, I will do anything for my team to win. Afterwards everything was normal. We had a chat on the flight as well. Those things end on the field. When you are competitive as an opponent we always respect that about any opponent. He is a very feisty character and that works for his game. Credit for him to maintaining that and I am sure he will do many good things in Sri Lankan cricket,” the Indian captain went onto add.
Opener K.L. Rahul, who is just one year older than Dickwella admitted that he would have done the same thing had the roles been reversed.
“It’s a tricky thing. If we were in a situation like that, I am sure we’d have done the same thing. That’s how the game is played, nobody wants to lose the game. These tricks and trades are played by every team. There’s nothing unfair about it. Obviously, as a team trying to win the game we want to bowl as many overs as we can, but that’s how it is played. You can’t really complain about that. If we had five or six more overs, we’d have definitely made a game out of it, but it was still exciting for us,” Rahul said.
