Former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has lavished praise on Sonal Dinusha after the second Test match ended in a draw at Colombo on Thursday. Dinusha scored twin centuries in the match, scoring an unbeaten knock of 133 runs off 264 balls in the second innings.
Furthermore, he scored 103 runs in the first innings as he batted at the top of his game. Thus, he was awarded Player of the Match for his fine knocks in both innings.
The left-hander turned out to be a thorn in India’s flesh throughout the series. The southpaw amassed 420 runs in two Test matches at a stunning average of 140 and ended as the highest run-getter of the series.
“India should have won this Test against Sri Lanka. Sonal Dinusha was like that question in the question paper that was out of syllabus. Everyone was like who is this stranger but what a player! Just a phenomenal performance. This is like a victory for Sri Lanka. They dragged the game to five days. They just need two good spinners, and they will be a force to reckon with,” Ashwin said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin said that Sonal Dinusha batted at the top of his game and did not even put one foot wrong.
“I saw four innings of Sonal Dinusha. Challenging pitches. He did not put even one foot wrong. Padikkal plays a lot on the backfoot but he got bowled by going back. This guy did not get stuck by the lengths on even one ball. That boy is incredibly fit. He picks the lengths really well. He was using the feet against Jadeja, playing the sweep and slog sweep. Looks like a player to watch out for in the future.”
The former Indian all-rounder said India decided to enforce the follow-on because of rain but questioned the bowlers’ workload.
“The only thing for the follow-on was the weather. Gill said they wanted to go for it because of the weather. I understand. But there was a lot of time. It does not work like that. Are the bowlers machines? That is the difference rest can make. You can’t bowl 25 overs so easily, especially as a spinner. How will a spinner back himself up? The debate is fine, though. It’s okay. Because of the rain, they wanted to get a result,” he said.
India won the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka by 1-0.
