Don’t write off champions: Nathan Lyon on Kohli’s recent batting slump
The Australian team must be hoping to take advantage of Virat Kohli’s prolonged batting slump when the two sides clash in the five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy
Facing the tough rival, Indian cricket team, Sri Lanka coach Rumesh Ratnayeke doesn’t fear much as he firmly believes that his side has got everything to counter-attack Virat Kohli boys, provided they execute the plans at the right time.
“We’ve plans for everybody. We are always good with plans. Can we execute those plans? At what stage? At what point? Hopefully, that works to our benefit. Then we have to look at the other way also. We have to counter-attack,” Ratnayeke said after his boys drew warm-up game against Board President’s XI in Kolkata on Sunday.
Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating 0-9 defeat to India across formats in June this year. However, Ratnayake believes the Islanders are upbeat to give Indians a tough hand this time.
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“We are seeing where we can sort of improve on. We have discussed what we can do, in the areas of batting and bowling. We know the players we are going to meet. Hopefully, strategies will work out. And hopefully, the execution comes upright. We are ready for it. We know it is a huge challenge. We want to make sure we execute things right,” the coach said.
Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Ratnayeke sees his team’s core strength in ‘reverse swing’. “I think we have done all that we could do to counter attack what we are going to expect in the Test matches. And reverse swing is one of the areas we wanted to work on.”
India will host the first Test at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, starting November 16.
Commenting on the Eden Gardens strip, the 53-year-old coach said the ball seams a little bit here. “The Eden wicket that I know of from the long past has been a good track and given a lot of runs, but at the same time the ball seams also a little bit,” he added.
Ratnayeke also revealed that bowling all-rounder Angelo Mathews won’t roll his arm much in Tests due to recovering from the injury. However, he might get to bowl in ODIs starting December 10.
(With inputs from agencies)
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