Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne’s performance this year has been very much different to that of his team.
While Sri Lanka, barring the recent series win over Pakistan, has struggled to put up a good performance in Tests, Karunaratne has gone from strength to strength as the year passes, and is now the third-highest run-scorer in Tests this year.
With 940 runs in ten games in 2017, the left-handed batsman trails South Africa’s Hashim Amla by just a couple of runs and will have a chance to leave him behind when his team travels to India for a three-Test series later this year. He starred with the bat in the recently-concluded series against Pakistan, finishing the series as its top run-scorer with 306 runs in two games.
Now that he is looking at ease in international cricket, the southpaw has credited batting coach Hashan Tillakaratne and former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara who helped him to sort some issues with his technique.
“I had a few issues with the new ball. My head was falling over. I had that issue from the time I was playing for the school. I have worked on that area and rectified the errors. But in the last Indian series, I got out to Umesh Yadav in that fashion again. Had a chat with our Batting Coach Hashan Tillakaratne he sorted a few things out,” he told Cricbuzz.
“I also had a chat with Sanga (Kumar Sangakkara). Asked him how he played the in-swinger so well, an area where I had issues with. What he identified was that, as I was tapping the bat, the head went down and the eyes weren’t positioned properly. You may have noticed that now, at the start of my innings, I try to stay upright rather than tapping the bat. I watched some of Sanga’s videos too in county cricket. He plays so well to the ball that comes in,” he added.
Karunaratne further spoke on his goals before expressing his delight over the series win over Pakistan. Before the recently-concluded series, Sri Lanka had endured a terrible time in Tests, being whitewashed by India and South Africa in addition to losing a Test against Bangladesh for the first time.
However, the Islanders did remarkably well in the UAE and went on to win both the games.
“If I can finish between 20 to 25 Test hundreds at the end of my career, I will be pleased. This series win is very pleasing. It’s my second Player of the Series award. This has been a tough few months for the team, and we felt that the fans were moving away from us. The series win will help us to bring them back,” he said.
He further admitted he was disappointed after missing his maiden double hundred in Tests by just four runs. He was out for 196 in the second Test in Dubai.
“Very disappointed missing the double,” he said. “The last Sri Lankan to score a double was Sanga in Wellington in 2015. I knew it was Wahab’s last over of the spell. I wanted the strike back to face the leg-spinner so that I could protect Dilruwan Perera. I knew I could score off Yasir Shah. Didn’t think that he was going to cut the ball in.
“Nevertheless I am glad to score a hundred in the first pink ball Test. In a way, it’s good that I missed the double. That will make me lot more hungrier,” Karunaratne added.