India put away the sweep shot, Sri Lanka swear by it
COLOMBO: Seldom have we seen two teams employing completely contrasting batting plans to tackle the same conditions. Despite Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane dominating Sri Lanka’s spin attack by using their feet well, it was interesting to watch the home batsmen play cross-batted shots against R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. And they did that successfully with Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis both getting hundreds.
“After the second day’s play we felt it was tough to bat on it (this wicket). We tried to play straight but couldn’t score well. Before the second innings we had a discussion on what was the best way to score runs. Everyone agreed, moving forward it was using the sweep and reverse sweep heavily. We executed really well in the second innings. We fought back hard,” said Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal.
India captain Virat Kohli however believes the sweep remained a high-risk shot. “I don’t think they drove even a single ball. There was no driving on that pitch. My approach or Ajinkya’s or Pujara’s might be very different, so it’s all about finding ways to score. It happens in cricket sometimes that you play a particular shot and suddenly it becomes productive in that particular innings for you. But as soon as you get out, then you start thinking twice because it is a high risk shot, to be honest, against the pace of Jadeja, especially for the right-hander.”