Rangana Herath concedes KL Rahul has a bright future ahead

Indian Test opener KL Rahul got back his touch in the second knock after failing to play anything beyond a ball in the first inning of the Kolkata Test. He registered his ninth half-century in 11 Test matches, on Sunday at the Eden Gardens. Rahul had scores of 85 and 57 when India travelled to Sri Lanka and has been maintaining a consistent performance in the recent past.

His flamboyant display with the willow in Kolkata awed everyone including Sri Lanka’s veteran spinner Rangana Herath, who came in to praise Rahul. After the end of the 4th day’s play in the game, Herath conceded, “He has matured a lot although he is young. He has a bright future ahead of him.”

The Karnataka based cricketer finished the day on 73 not out to poise India to a comfortable 49-run lead to post 171 for 1 to culminate Day 4. Sri Lanka had gone ahead by 122 runs by scoring 294 in the first innings in reply to India’s 172. Rahul along with Shikhar Dhawan on the other end shared a 166-run stand. Dhawan however, missed the century-mark by six runs.

Herath opens up about the recent controversies

Herath also brought up the topic of fake fielding, of which Dinesh Chandimal had been accused. While in the outfield, the Lankan skipper put in a slide in a stance to collect the ball while he was nowhere close to it. Chandimal was then called on by the umpires and given a warning. However, no penalty was awarded to India.

Sri Lanka got embroiled in yet another controversy, which saw tail-ender Dilruwan Perera look up at the dressing room before appealing for a DRS. Mohammed Shami was bowling the 58th over of Sri Lanka’s first innings on-field umpire Nigel Llong raised his finger after Shami’s delivery hit Dilruwan on the pads. The Lankan batsman turned back towards the dressing room as if walking off and promptly returned to signal for DRS.

To neuter all the criticism, Herath stated, “We all know those rules but when you play this game everybody is learning and in future, everyone will know the rules 100 percent.”