Dimuth Karunaratne well prepared to face the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja

In between the tough times for Sri Lanka in all forms of cricket during their perennial transitional phase, one man who has taken up the responsibility of amassing the hard runs is their Test opener Dimuth Karunaratne who has proven to become their batting mainstay off late.

The partnership which Karunaratne stitched with Kusal Mendis in the second Test match at Colombo against India after being asked to follow-on, is the greatest example of his abilities with the bat. He followed up his good run with the bat even in the recently concluded series against Pakistan in the second Test match at Dubai where he slammed 196.

This time around, Sri Lanka has their task cut out to face a potent bowling unit in their own backyard. But Karunaratne revealed that he has got his plans worked out to counter the bowling of India’s spin twin, Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Karuna also has plans for Shami and Umesh

“I know Jadeja and Ashwin are both hungry for wickets. Every time they bowl it’s about sticking to the basics. If I don’t give them any chance, they will try to do something else. If we need them to change the field you have to do something extra,” claimed Dimuth Karunaratne according to Cricbuzz.

“That’s my gameplan… I wait for the loose ones and I will stick to that. If it does not work I will think out of the box and give some extra pressure to the bowlers,”  further added the Lankan opener. Also, the southpaw revealed he has set plans for seam bowling pair of Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami.

“I played them in the last series. I have a few plans and I know what they’re going to do with me. I’ve prep well. I will stick to that plan, if it needs to be changed I will go and do it,” quoted the southpaw. Furthermore, Dimuth claimed the match against Board President’s XI denied them exposure to a left-arm spinner.

“They didn’t give us left-arm spinners. It’s not easy I know they will definitely play with Jadeja, and maybe Kuldeep to go alongside Ashwin,” concluded Karunaratne.