Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur on Monday (January 18) said his team’s batting performance in the first innings was “unacceptable” and it was a major reason that the hosts were on the back foot from the start of the game in the defeated first Test against England at Galle.
In the first innings, Sri Lanka was dismissed for 135 and then conceded 421 as Joe Root-led England side got a hefty lead in the game and eventually defeated the hosts by 7 wickets in the first Test of two-Test series at Galle International Stadium on Monday (January 18).
The coach pointed out that Sri Lanka’s poor batting show at Galle was similar to the capitulation against South Africa at the Wanderers earlier in the month, where the Islanders were bowled out for 157 and 211 to suffer a whitewash 2-0 in the two-Test series.
Arthur said after Galle Test defeat: “The first innings was very poor, it was an unacceptable batting performance. I am not one to ever look for excuses. It was like we were batting at the Wanderers and Centurion in terms of tempo.
We hadn't changed our tempo to batting in the subcontinent, coming back and batting in Sri Lanka where it is all about patience. It is about trusting your technique, about trusting your game-plan, about wearing the opposition down and grinding away.”
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However, in the second innings, Sri Lanka has shown a fight against England as Kusal Perera (62), Lahiru Thirimanne (111), and Angelo Mathews (71) helped the hosts to put up 359 on the board and Arthur said if they had been able to score at least 220 runs in the first innings, they could have had a chance.
The coach further said, “We got that in the second innings after we had a long, hard chat about our performance day one and spoke about how we were going to make it better. The guys responded very nicely in the second innings, but it was too late. Even if we get 220 in our first innings, we keep ourselves massively in the game. That is where it was lost, that was disappointing but we have put it right in the second innings.”
Praising Thirimanne, Arthur noted: “Since I have worked with him (Thirimanne), all I have seen is a player that works incredibly hard at his game, who has a really good technique. When we took him to SA, we felt as a reserve batsman, we thought he played fast-bowling fairly well. I thought he played the quicks well at the Wanderers.
We want him to turn those 30s into 100s. He came out here and proved his worth. To see him get a hundred was really nice and just rewards for a lot of effort that he has put in over the past couple of months. I said to every one of the players when I came in, we have drawn a line about what you have done in the past.
It is what you are going to do going forward that matters to me. All I have seen from Thirimanne is a guy that is very dedicated, has got a good defence, which is one of the qualities of Test match batting. I was really happy to see him put it all together.”
He wants his batsmen to go for big runs in the first innings to win the Test matches, adding: “We are looking for batsmen, particularly in the first innings, to go big. We need somebody to get a big score.”
Arthur continued, “We know the wickets here are tough to start on but once you get in you have to capitalize, just like Joe Root did for England which was the difference in the game. I thought Angelo Mathews's innings yesterday was just superb in these conditions.
The way he applied himself, the tempo of his innings, his game-plans, I just thought our young batsmen needed to watch how he went about his business to know how to bat on a turning wicket. Hopefully, that's the lessons learned.
We want hundreds. Lahiru got one for us in this Test, we got the 60s out of KJP and Angelo, we need those guys to go big and get some big scores.”
He also backed Kusal Mendis to come good with the despite his twin failures in the first Test against England, scoring 0 and 15 at Galle.
The coach signed off by saying, “I'll keep reaffirming, I think Kusal Mendis is a wonderful player. He will score a lot of runs in the future for SL. He has been under pressure. We spoke long and hard about him playing in this Test match.
We thought coming back into local, familiar conditions might just trigger it for him. That's a discussion that we will have in the next day or two. He is under pressure. International batsmen, when you are not scoring, are always under the pump. It is how you come out of that that is the key. We will sit down and make that decision in the next day or two.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
