As if the hard toil on the first two days of the ongoing second Test was not enough for Sri Lanka, the island nation is all set for some more tough time as Ajinkya Rahane has said the pitch is not ideal for batting. India made the most of winning the toss, piling up 622 for 9 (declared) with Cheteshwar Pujara and Rahane leading the charge with centuries. However, both the centurions had scored the centuries on the opening day of the game when the pitch was behaving well and were out early on day two.
Throughout the second day, the pitch offered variable bounce and Ravichandran Ashwin has already shown that the way ahead is filled with thorns for the hosts. The off-spinner dashed Sri Lanka’s hopes of making a good start by dismissing both their openers cheaply as Sri Lanka finished the day on 50 for 2, still trailing India’s mammoth total by 572 runs.
Speaking at the post-day conference, Rahane said that relying on sweep shots would not help the batsmen as the pitch is offering variable bounce before stating that the Indian bowlers need to make the most of the conditions on day 3.
“Playing sweep shots is high-risk because the bounce is variable. Some balls are bouncing while others are keeping low. Playing on this wicket isn’t easy for the batsmen and tomorrow (Saturday) would be key for our bowlers to bowl in right areas,” said Rahane, who scored 132 runs in the first innings.
The century was Rahane’s first since the 188-run knock against New Zealand way back in October last year. He was in good form during the West Indies ODI series, where he had scored 3 half-centuries and a century in the five-match series. Rahane said that his performance in the Caribbeans gave him the confidence of playing big knocks.
“It was important but for me, I was confident about myself. I was batting well in West Indies so I wanted to carry that form. So here I decided that if I play positively and play properly I would convert it into a big one,” he said.
“It’s all about mindset. Coming into the game knowing it is a spinning track. I was visualising what are the good shots on this wicket. we had to dominate their four spinners,” added Rahane.
Rahane also had a word of warning for the Indian bowlers who might get carried away with the amount of assist the pitch is offering.
“It won’t be easy for our bowlers too, for the bowlers we have to get their eight wickets too. The ball is spinning but it needs to be seen how things go,” Rahane said.
The 622-run total was India’s sixth 600-plus score since December 2016 and second consecutive one. Prior to December 2016, India did not have a single 600-plus total in last five years. When asked about what prompted the remarkable turnaround, Rahane said:
“It will be a different challenge. It’s good to see different batsmen scoring runs and even at the bottom of the players are scoring runs. It is good that last four are contributing and credit for that goes to Sanjay Bangar and Raghu in the nets.”
“We don’t look at our opponents. For us it is important to keep our standards high and give our best all time. I discussed with Virat (Kohli) that we needed 150-200 runs for a stand to push them on backfoot and that what happened with Pujara,” he added.
“We are talking about that we want to dominate. Shikhar (Dhawan) is batting well and (KL) Rahul came in this match. We know that if Shikhar and Rahul continue batting like that the middle order can carry that momentum,” concluded Rahane.