Abu Dhabi: One thing that Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne has learnt from the forgettable series against India is the importance of batting big and batting for a long time.
He took 205 deliveries for his 93 on day one of the first Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
Sri Lanka were whitewashed 3-0 in the Test series against India and also struggled in the shorter-format matches.
“We just need to bat for longer periods of time,” said Karunaratne, who looked set to score his seventh Test hundred, had his skipper Dinesh Chandimal not brought his innings to an abrupt end by not responding to a call for a run. Karunaratne was subsequently run out.
“When we played against India, we were not able to get big totals. That was the difference and it doesn’t matter if we take time. We can capitalise later on.”
Karunaratne was in a forgiving mood with Chandimal, and said his captain’s act was “a part of the game”.
“I can’t say it is entirely his fault, partly mine too,” said Karunaratne, who held fort after Pakistan took two wickets in the first hour in the UAE capital. “The good thing is we tried to move forward not thinking about it too much.
“We did quite well in the first hour, but lost two wickets after that. In the second session though, we managed to pull things back. We managed to bat out that period.
“It’s not an easy wicket to bat on. Not easy to get runs quickly.”
Karunaratne revealed that he went back to his school coach Harsha De Silva and sought his help after the India series.
“He has been with me since I played under-15s,” Karunaratne said. “He knows me well. When he was in Colombo I asked him to do a session with me. He just wanted to check how I was going and after the session, he said that there was nothing technical I had to adjust, but perhaps the mindset. He said ‘if you want to score more, be positive’. I tried to be positive today and it helped me to score some decent runs in the first innings.
“It is not easy but [Niroshan] Dickwella I don’t think will struggle on that wicket. He will play his natural game. If we go beyond 350 runs it will be good. Now it’s turning and there’s a decent spin attack we have and we can put them under pressure.”
