Our bowling effort was disappointing: Gurusinha

Our bowling effort was disappointing: Gurusinha

Sri Lanka's cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha was disappointed with his team's bowling effort after India posted almost 400 runs on day one of the first Test in Galle on Wednesday (July 26). India finished day one on 399 for 3 scoring at 4.4 runs an over after electing to bat first.

"We have to be honest and yes, we didn't bowl well. Nuwan Pradeep was the most outstanding I thought. It's a really good batting wicket. I heard Virat Kohli talking that it is a good batting wicket as well. We bowled on both sides of the wicket. Shikhar Dhawan just took over the game. His 190 was one reason we find ourselves in this situation," Gurusinha told journalists.

"Our coach Nic Pothas will sit down with the bowlers and they will have a chat. Had we taken another wicket despite conceding 400 runs, it would have been a good effort. We need to take couple of wickets early tomorrow.

"It's a good track. Very difficult to contain and we know that India has a very strong batting line-up. We will be batting somewhere down the line tomorrow and our batsmen have to just to go out and play good cricket."

Gurusinha also appreciated the effort by Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan, who posted a career-best 190. "Fine effort by him. We know he wasn't in the initial squad and then he came back into the side and showed the selectors what he is capable of. That is the way he plays and we also ended up bowling to his strength and he capitalized on that."

Dhawan was dropped on 31 by Asela Gunaratne and it proved to be a costly drop. Gunaratne has been ruled out for more than four weeks after sustaining multiple fractures on his left thumb while attempting the catch.

"We dropped a catch off Dhawan and then paid a price. Not sure what would have happened had that catch been taken. It was a double blow. We dropped the catch and lost a player. Now that Asela is out we have to play with ten players against the world's number one ranked team," noted Gurusinha.

Gurusinha explained that Sri Lanka discussed playing five specialist bowlers, but then gave up the idea. "That thought crossed our minds too, but eventually we decided to stick to this combination. We didn't want to change the combination too much. We thought this was the best combination."