Cricket: We must handle Kohli – Bhanuka Rajapaksa

By Shanuka Aravinda in Dubai

After reaching the Super 4 stage of the ongoing ACC Asia Cup 2022, Sri Lanka has turned its focus on countering India, which could be considered as a crunch game to be played on Tuesday (6).

Sri Lanka comprehensively lost their opening game to Afghanistan, but came out with a stupendous performance to overcome Bangladesh after a high-scoring game.

Sri Lanka and India have faced each other 25 times in T20 Internationals and have won just seven games while conceding 17 in addition to one game that ended without a result.

This record show that India has the upper hand in the shortest and popular version of the game, but the five-time winner of the regional cricket crown are willing to take a different approach against the seven-time winners India when the two sides meet in two days.

“Our main focus is to claim the wickets of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya early. Both of them are in fine form currently, and getting them out before settling down will definitely give us a better chance to dominate against India,” said Sri Lanka’s explosive top order batsman Bhanuka Rajapaksa.

“Kohli and Pandya are certain threats to any opposition side. But we have observed their batting patterns. We will be watchful when bowling against them, and make sure we don’t let them dominate,” Rajapaksa added.

On average India has bowlers in the likes of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yusvender Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin, who have each played well over 60 T20i games individually.

The only bowler from the Sri Lankan to have played over 30 T20i games is the side’s star allrounder Wanindu Hasaranga.

Rajapaksa explained that losing three frontline bowlers due to injuries may put them on the back foot, yet the new bowlers must bowl effectively to curtail the Indian top order.

“We certainly miss Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara, Binura Fernando and Kasun Rajitha as they are treating injuries. During the first two games of the Asia Cup three bowlers made their T20i debuts, but they should be more accurate in their bowling, especially against India,” noted Rajapaksa.

Kohli, who made his 100th T20i appearance for India against Pakistan earlier this week, made a comeback knock of 35 off 34 deliveries and continued his regained form with a well composed and unbeaten 59 off 44 deliveries against Hong Kong, where he equaled the most number of fifties scored by an Indian batsman with skipper Rohit Sharma. Both Kohli and Sharma have scored beyond 50 on 31 occasions.

“It’s great to see Kohli back in his usual form, and it’s not a surprise to see him do that in a high crunch run-chase. Records show that he is more aggressive and consistent during run-chases. Kohli was out of touch during the recent months and he took that setback in a professional manner to regain the form. He did not talk much during the bad patch, but now he has started to converse about his batting and share his view with others. It’s good to see that,” former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said at a ICC brief last week.