Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah destroyed the Sri Lankan batting order after claiming 7 wickets for 76 in the second innings in Galle, which gave the Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the Test series.
Sri Lankan opener Kaushal Silva, ahead of the second Test scheduled in Colombo, stated that the team’s best chance of neutralising Yasir Shah was to score more frequently off him.
The Sri Lankan batting order remained reserved during his spell in both innings and scored at an average of just 2.6 RPO.
“I think when you have a good bowler, you have to put pressure on him to receive loose balls,” Silva said. “As batsmen, we have to put him under pressure, because if we play the same way, he’ll keep putting the ball in that same spot. If he does that, it’s difficult to play the strokes we want. If we use our feet, we should be able to get singles and twos, and the odd four. We’ve got to rotate the strike. If we do that, he can’t settle down and bowl at one batsman.”
Silva said that Yasir had impressive control over his bowling, although he did not have the variety a leg-spinner usually has. “His accuracy is excellent, and the other thing is that he bowls quite quickly. He’s usually in the 85-90kph range, which is faster than most spinners. He does use variations – but he also uses speed well. He bowls his legbreak fast often, and slow sometimes – the googly is the same. He does use the flipper often as well. We have to wrestle the bad balls from him.”
Silva’s second Test hundred in the first innings went in vain as the hosts faced loss, nevertheless, he was satisfied by improving his conversion rate. Silva also stated that advice from his father, who coached him since his youth was vital in scoring his centuries.
“Long before this tour started, my father told me to work on a couple of shots and implement that in the series, so I could be improving,” Silva said. “So I began working on that about a month and a half before the tour. I worked pretty hard with [coach] Marvan [Atapattu] aiya, and it was important to me to perfect my cut and pull. That was an advantage to me in the last game. I got a lot of scoring opportunities that way. He also scolded me for the way I got out in the second innings, but that’s pretty much to be expected.”
Silva is set to be the oldest batsmen in Sri Lanka’s top six at the age of 29, after Kumar Sangakkara’s likely retirement after one or two Tests of the India series in August.
“Replacing Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene will take time. Only when a group of cricketers play together for some time will things improve. That’s when we’ll get that experience. The good thing is, this group of players has been together for a while. We’ve played under-19 and ‘A’ team level together. So we know how to play with each other, what each other’s needs are, where a particular batsman likes to score, where their release shots are, and all of that. I think that will help us develop quickly.”
