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Test matches will be played at Galle, P Sara Oval, and SSC Colombo.
First Test is scheduled to be played between 12 th august- 15th August at Galle.
Ahead of the SL Tour ,India Captain Virat kohli said in a conversation to reporters "This is a first full assignment for me as a test captain as bangladesh tour had one odd test, it was not a full-fledged series.This series will be a challenge for me and the whole team"
When asked about the possibility of playing 3 spinners in the forthcoming series with Sri Lanka, he said "We need to take 20 wickets to win a test match and I firmly believe that we need to be playing our best bowlers in the squad to give our team the best chance to win a Test match"
"We Should be playing 5 bowlers and yes it is quite likely that we will be playing with 3 spinners."
He further added "Top 6 batsmen have to take more responsibilities of making runs,Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar too can bat well,With Ashwin averaging 40 in Test matches, I don't see why he couldn't be our all rounder. Its all about improving on certain aspects of the game which can bring balance to the side."
While the captain had
thrown a challenge on top 6 and want them to accept this exciting opportunity in the test series in Sri Lanka, but question remains of the possibility of
playing 2 important players of the team Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma,
both of them have struggled to cement their spots in the side.Although Rohit had replaced
Pujara during the one-off Test in Bangladesh but failed to impress.
Kohli came out very
strongly in support of the Mumbai Indians Captain, he said. “We felt that if he
gets going he (Rohit) can take one session away from the opposition. That could
be the difference in our winning Test matches.
Captain Virat then added “Rohit had done well in Australia while batting
at three. I think he needs to be given more opportunity there. Once he settles
down in that spot, he will be the catalyst that we need in the middle-order who
can keep the scoring rate going and give the side more chance to bowl those
extra 20-odd overs
Talking about Opening
slot and contenders for the spot KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan, He said “It is the spot that is
being contested for strongly. Rahul came through in Australia and batted really
well when Shikhar was not performing consistently. Now Shikhar has got runs
again and Vijay has got runs for us consistently. So, it is just in the matter
of a shift in the balance as to who is playing well at that particular point of
time. The problem of plenty is never bad.”
Indian captain also seemed excited about the 10-day preparation time prior to the opening Test. He expressed
“It is an opportunity to
have certain plans to prepare for a particular series. Actually, judge
ourselves on the basis of those three Test matches and analyse how many times
we were able to do things we actually wanted to do. I think in one-off Test
matches you do not get that opportunity”
He then Added “You
prepare for a week or 10 days and that game gets over in five days. It is very
exciting for me personally to play a full series as a captain and to be able to
have the opportunity of executing certain things that we want to do as a team,"
When Asked about the areas where he worked upon with India A coach
Rahul Dravid, Delhi batsman spoke about adjusting to pitches which helps
spinners with sweeping being one of the key aspect. “Sweeping is one aspect
that I was always looking to improve on. If you look at our team, Ajinkya plays
the shot well, I have seen Rohit play the shot and also Vijay. I thought I
might add it into my armoury.” “I played that last in Australia and I figured
out that playing on turning wicket is something that you need to have as a
batsman to tackle difficult situations.
Dravid helped me from the sidelines that he saw something could
have been corrected while playing. “That was indeed very helpful and he has
been very helpful in the past six days and organized whatever sort of practice
that I needed. I am really glad that I came here and played that game. All in
all it turned out to be a very good preparation.”
Image courtsey- Twitter
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