Sri Lankan surfaces are not conducive to power hitting – Consultant batting coach Rathore

Batting consultant Vikram Rathore working on the batting with Sri Lanka T20I Captain Dasun Shanaka in the nets

• “The kind of surfaces IPL T20 cricket is played has given a lot of talent and bench strength to India”

 There has been a lot of talk surrounding the preparation of wickets for matches played in Sri Lanka, they vary from match to match, but the bottom line is that you will rarely come across a flat pitch which suits T20 cricket.

The lack of such pitches has seen the downfall of the Lankan batsmen to produce big scores in the shortest version of the game. The batsmen have been blamed time and again for not putting up totals for their bowlers to defend. Of course there are few shortcomings particularly the middle order, but overall, it is the lack of batting surfaces that has seen the Lankan batsmen struggle and eventually the opposition taking the upper hand.

“I think there are two components to T20 batting. One is power hitting of course. On that I would say the surfaces here are not that conducive to power hitting as well. Especially when you play in Colombo, it is not an easy surface to hit sixes because it is pretty slow and the ball does not come on to the bat,” said Sri Lanka’s consultant batting coach Vikram Rathore at the end of the second T20I against England at Pallekele on Sunday.

“The other important component is range as a batting unit. I think that is where Sri Lanka can excel. If you are not a power hitter, the team that hits a lot of sixes, you can hit a lot of fours if you utilise the whole ground basically. All of them sweep well, most of them can reverse sweep, they use their feet. That is a good thing. If you are not having the power hitting range, then if you can start utilising the whole ground, all the angles, you can make up for that. These wickets maybe suit the batters to do that more. As I said earlier, these are not the easiest of the surfaces to hit sixes. I am okay with that. If they can use their feet and use the angles well and score runs square of the wicket, that is good.”

“Batting is always about scoring runs, more so in T20 cricket, it is intent. So, when you walk in as a batter, the idea is to score as many runs as we can as a batting unit. If we keep putting par or par plus goals, I think we have the bowling to defend that. So, the idea is to play with intent, play positive cricket, play your shots, back your strengths, back your shots that you play well, and look to score as many runs as you can,” said the former Indian batting coach who joined the team on 18 January, 4 days before the start of Sri Lanka’s white ball series against England.

Rathore was impressed the way Pavan Rathnayake who was drafted into the side for Sunday’s contest, used his feet against the spinners to top score, with 40 off 22 balls.

“Yeah, he is batting really well at the moment, one of the better players as far as using his feet is concerned. I haven’t seen too many players in this generation using their feet as well as he is doing, so that is really impressive. He again batted well today, so good sign for Sri Lankan cricket.” 

The main issue concerning Sri Lanka’s batting is their middle order which fails to keep up the momentum given by the top three batsmen.

“That is where work is being done at the moment. We have been getting good starts, but then we haven’t been exploiting that start in the middle overs. We are having a lot of discussions,” said Rathore. “I think we need to be smarter with our game plans against them. We need to pick the right balls to play the right shots and shot selection needs to be better. They are practising all the things that we are discussing in the nets, so we are hoping that better results will come. Today I thought we were a lot better than the previous games. It is a work in progress, and we will keep working on that.” 

Sri Lanka has been going for their matches with a 7-4 combination top heavy in their batting. But Rathore pointed out the dangers of going with such a combination. 

“We have got a really good bowling attack, three or four bowlers who are really good bowlers in T20 cricket. Because the batting hasn’t been doing well, I think we want to have that cushion of one extra batter. With Dasun [Shanaka] there and a couple of guys who can bowl spin, I think we are well placed, even with four bowlers. Unfortunately, today Eshan [Malinga] got injured, so that’s a lesson for us also, that when you go with four bowlers and if one of them gets injured, it can get a little tricky. It’s something to learn from.” 

Commenting on why India is streets ahead in the shortest format Rathore who will remain as Sri Lanka’s batting consultant till 10 March said, “I think IPL has helped. It is the best T20 league in the world being played in India and the kind of surfaces they play on, that has given them a lot of talent and a lot of bench strength. You see a lot of batters coming in with a lot of intent and a lot of power hitting. The IPL is one of the major reasons for that.” - (ST)