To do justice to our cricket, need to make pitches suiting fast bowlers Vaas

To do justice to our cricket, need to make pitches suiting fast bowlers Vaas

Sri Lanka's fast bowling coach, Chaminda Vaas berated his side's fast bowlers for the wayward performance in the morning session of the third and final Test in Kandy, but added that the pair of Vishwa Fernando and Lahiru Kumara came back strongly in the next two sessions.

India's openers, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul, were treated to plenty of hit-me balls from Sri Lanka's pace duo. The result was India racing away to a quick start and giving their side the upperhand. However, in the next session, Sri Lanka fought back through their spinners, while the fast bowlers were able to maintain some pressure from the other ends.

"I'm not happy with the way the fast bowlers bowled in the morning," Vaas said on Saturday (August 12). "They bowled here and there. I'm not giving excuses. These guys are inexperienced. Vishwa is playing his second game and Lahiru is bowling his sixth. They didn't bowl well. After lunch they came back strongly and bowled pretty well. Especially the spinners. We kept them to 320 for the first day. I'm really, really happy with the spinners. At in the end, the way Vishwa bowled in the last two spells was also good."

Sri Lanka have struggled to have a consistent pace attack, with a number of players getting injured on a regular basis. In this series itself, they've seen Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep, their two main bowlers, bow out with injuries. Speaking about why this might be happening, Vaas said the fast bowlers need to be taken care of a lot better to ensure there are no injury setbacks.

"Yes, we have good fast bowlers, but Sri Lanka Cricket needs to wait for some time. They need to give some time to these fast bowlers. They haven't played much cricket. If you see the Indian fast bowlers they have played about sixty games. We need to be patient. We'll be able to get results from the fast bowlers.

"One thing is how we manage them in practices and the amount of cricket they play. The other thing is fitness as well. We need to manage them and look after them."

Vaas also called out for a better first-class structure to help the bowlers reach their best."They (Vishwa Fernando and Lahiru Kumara) need to play more, I think. If you take our first-class cricket, they don't have enough first-class experience to play well. If you take quicks from any country, they start bowling well after they have played 20-25 Tests only. We can't suddenly expect a lot from Vishwa and Lahiru Kumara. But it's with their mindset that they can improve. They need to practice a lot and play a lot of games. With that match experience only they will develop.

"We can't be satisfied with the way first-class cricket is. We need to make first-class cricket work for fast bowlers. We talk a lot about what ails first-class cricket, but no matter how much we talk, the issue hasn't moved forward. If we want to develop our cricket and increase the number of fast bowlers we have, if we want to do justice to our cricket, we need to make pitches that are suited to fast bowlers. If we do that I trust that our bowlers would be better off than they are now."