At Eden Gardens, Suranga Lakmal tormented World’s batting lineup like a Boss and proved that he is ready to become Sri Lanka’s bowling spearhead.
Suranga Lakmal is a 30-year-old from a rural village of Hambanthota, a city in the southern part of Sri Lanka. He is 6 foot 2” which is ”tall” for Sri Lankan fast bowler. And like most other fast bowlers from the island, he is thin and injury prone. If you had never seen him before, ”T-Bag” from the famous TV series ”Prison Break”, except for height, would have described him the best.
Lakmal, like all the Sri Lankan fast bowling greats, is a laidback and quiet character with or without the cherry in his hand. Also, like all of them in his breed, Lakmal likes to let the ball do the talking. That is what he did in the first test match.
There is very little doubt that the pitch and the overcast conditions helped his cause against India. But, if you look at the recent history, it will confirm that his figures of 6 – 6 – 0 – 3 on the rain-affected first day – statically the best opening spell in test cricket by anyone since 2002 was not an accident. Maybe India didn’t take enough notice – if not they had underestimated him, somehow, Lakmal was presented with a greenish track in this match. And It is not a secret anymore that Lakmal likes it green.
K L Raul couldn’t have done a lot other than completely missing it; First delivery was in line with the stumps, demanding a shot. But, it was curling towards slip all the time and Raul had to play at the kind of delivery which he must have planned to leave alone on a surface like this. Extra bounce took care of the rest, and Dickwalle’s hands were safe enough to send Raul back to the pavilion. Dhawan’s was a classic old-school dismissal for a swing bowler. Tight lines and lengths followed with an inswinging tempter which Dhawan dragged on to the stumps.
Virat Kholi walked in next. On a track that suits him, Lakmal wasn’t ready to make it any easy for arguably the world’s best batsman. Most importantly, he had the confidence to stick to his strengths while Lahiru Gamage had a hard time finding effective lengths at the other end. Lakmal’s first delivery to Kholi was identical to the one Raul got first up. Kholi was not good enough(or too good) to nick it this time. Lakmal didn’t stop. He sold Kholi the outswinger again and again before and after the rain break. Until… until he bowled an one that pitched little fuller and looked like curving away, only to hit the wicket and seam in a fraction. Kholi was sold a dummy along with the barrage of outswingers. India was three down for 17. Sri Lanka on top.
Lakmal later came back to pick up Bhuvaneshwar Kumar with another Jaffer. He ended up with four for 26, one wicket short of his second five-wicket haul in the last 12-months, partly due to captain not bringing him for his final spell little sooner.
Being a fast bowler must be the hardest job in cricket even on the fairest of days, weatherwise. Imagine doing that for most of the 24/7/365 in the mind-blowing heat in Subcontinent? If that’s not enough, hailing from Sri Lanka, amount of trouble Fast bowlers have to cope with is limitless. Despite lack of facilities, lack of quality coaches and lack of quality domestic cricket tournament, Lakmal has improved leaps and bounds since his international debut in 2010.
Sri Lankan spearhead averaged poor 48 in his first four years of test cricket. A clear indication that he was not ready for international cricket when he made his debut. However, Lakmal isn’t the only fast bowler from Sri Lanka who had struggled to cope with requirements of international cricket. In fact, bar Chaminda Vass, no Sri Lankan fast bowler had survived for more than 40 test matches in the history. This statistic convinces that the blame should go to the administrators for not creating a better environment and a system for fast bowlers to graduate to the national team.
Being the hard worker and explorer he is, Lakmal had managed to bring his average down to 35 in the span of last two years. In this year, he averages a decent 31. However, Lakmal still has a long way to go before he becomes a full package. Although he had averaged impressive 21 in the series against Pakistan on dead tracks, his average goes up to 84 in the three test matches he played at home this year.
At the start of the second innings, Lakmal was not in full flow. Him leaving the field carrying a niggle as soon as Sri Lanka begun bowling did not help their cause. Raul and Dhawan cashed in using the opportunity while Sri Lankan attack was exposed with Lakmal, not on the field.
On the fifth day morning, however, Lakmal we know, was back. After flirting with the outside edge, he brought one back to send Raul’s middle stump cartwheeling. Pujara played at another perfect delivery which had bounced a little extra to catch to the edge. Rahane was out-schooled with an inswinger after a rally of outswingers. Lakmal had just bowled an even better spell than on the first day, on a pitch that had assisted way less, with a 45 overs old ball. India were effectively 91 for four. Lakmal had put Sri Lanka on top for the second time in the match.
Unfortunately, Sri Lankan counterpart hasn’t had much support from others like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar or Mohammad Shami had. Lahiru Gamage was horrific throughout the match. And it was doubtful whether Sri Lanka got the selections correct. On a pitch that assisted seamers even on the fifth day, Sri Lanka looked like a seamer short throughout the match.
To Lakmal’s credit, he ended up with a match-bag of 7 wickets despite the lack of support and quality from the other end. Performances of Lakmal in the last two years had been a shining light for Sri Lanka in otherwise an abysmal period. If he can keep improving, with batting unit slowly finding confidence, there is little doubt that Sri Lanka is looking at a brighter few years ahead with Suranga Lakmal leading them to few famous victories.
