In England the conditions are tough for batters: Dimuth Karunaratne

Sri Lanka fought well in patches in the first two Tests against England but could not extend those phases to win either game. They lost the first game by five wickets and were handed 190 runs defeat in the subsequent game. Ahead of the third Test at The Oval, the former Sri Lanka skipper and opener, Dimuth Karunaratne, has termed England conditions as tough for batting. 

Karunaratne managed just 91 runs in the first two Tests at an average of 22.75 with one half-century in four innings. It is worth noting that, Kamindu Mendis is the second-highest runs scorer in the series with 203 runs at an average of 50.75. Karunaratne added that even the hosts struggled to bat and asserted that apart from Joe Root every other batter struggled.

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"In England the conditions are tough for batters, and we saw that even their openers struggled, as well as their No. 3. Apart from Joe Root the others also struggled despite this being home conditions for them. We're playing after a very long time here,” Karunaratne was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. 

Turning points in the matches have been those Joe Root innings: Karunaratne 

Notably, England batter Joe Root has been in sensational form as the veteran is on a century-scoring spree. In the second Test, he scored centuries in both the innings and took the game away from the visitors. The right-handed batter scored 143 and 103 runs, respectively, at the iconic venue, Lord’s. Dimuth Karunaratne admitted Root to be team’s headache and termed his innings as turning points of the match.

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"We've tried a few things against Joe but they were always unsuccessful. I think the turning points in the matches have been those Joe Root innings. Even when we've played at Galle, he's hit big runs, but the batters around him haven't scored as heavily. We really need to minimise the runs he's scoring,”Karunaratne concluded.