Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake has backed fast bowler Lasith Malinga to make a comeback to the side. Malinga was axed from Sri Lanka’s 15 member ODI squad for the upcoming series against Pakistan after a string of poor performances. Malinga returned to the side in June this year after a knee injury and since his comeback has taken just ten wickets in 13 games at an average of 62.
Pakistan fight back after being bowled out for 262
Sri Lanka crumbled under lights as they ended day 3 of the 2 nd Test against Pakistan in Dubai…
“I am sure he will come into picture when the T-20s are around. Once his injuries are through, he is an exceptional bowler and the whole world knows it. He has shown his grit and guts in the past and I am sure he will work his way through,” Ratnayake told journalists.
Sri Lanka lost momentum in the second Test against Pakistan here in Dubai after taking a first innings lead of 220 runs as they slumped to 34 for five after a stunning piece of left-arm swing bowling by Wahab Riaz. Wahab took three wickets and he was well backed up by Mohammad Abbas and Yasir Shah.
“It was unexpected. The processes were lost in the midst. The boys had belief saying that we needed to play out 15 overs. We were thinking of those 15 overs and not the processes. Hopefully things will work out for us in the afternoon tomorrow.”
“They are such good side and unpredictable. We shouldn’t forget that they are a good bowling side although Mohammad Amir is missing. They bowled exceptionally well in those 15 overs. They certainly did bowl better than us in the last 15 overs on Saturday even though we bounced back Sunday afternoon to bowl them out. It is up to us now to rethink and redo the things that we did in the first innings,” Ratnayake, who is in his first assignment as Fast Bowling coach, conceded.
Sri Lanka could have enforced the follow on, but opted otherwise and under lights with the pink ball, the conditions were ideal for Wahab.
“The reason why we didn’t enforce the follow on was that we felt that it was very hot and the bowlers wouldn’t have been able to go through the strenuous heat. We collectively thought that we should bat again.”
“I don’t blame the pitch. Most of the shots that we played were due to bad decisions. We have to recollect tomorrow and do things differently. Nothing wrong with the pitch, I should say.”
With the lead only 250, now overnight batsman Kusal Mendis has a big responsibility to rally round the lower middle order and the tail to take Sri Lanka’s total beyond 300. Pakistan have never lost a Test series at home in the last ten years.
“The first thing is first. We need to go and do the processes right. Make it short processes. Don’t think of big totals. If they can think of small things and if they can win those, that’s great. We have got so much of batting and big names to come. Just a matter of two of them having a great partnership and it will be a different story.”
Sri Lanka’s quicks Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep have put up a good show in tough conditions and Ratnayake praised their efforts. Both bowlers are returning to the side after injuries that forced them to miss a large portion of the Indian series.
Dimuth’s progress eases pressure on Sri Lankan batting
A few questions had been asked about Dimuth Karunaratne’s batting in the first innings…
“We worked on simple things. We worked on angles. We worked on areas on the fourth and fifth stumps. We had option ‘A’ and option ‘B’. If one thing didn’t work we wanted to get back to the others. I don’t want to elaborate as they are team secrets. They executed that very well. It wasn’t express pace other than Pradeep. But it was a matter of having the ball in the right areas. It was not 140 plus but they hit the right areas,” Ratnayake explained.
“It is very hard to handle the heat, but we managed the heat. The support staff we have here managed it quite well. Even though there was an injury to Nuwan, we managed him well. It was the stiffness on his hamstring. The support staff and skipper managed him well and nobody noticed it.”
