Dhawan’s aggression is exciting to watch: Sanath Jayasuriya

The chief selector of Sri Lanka and former captain Sanath Jayasuriya like the aggressive style of Indian opener Dhawan. In an interview with Times of India, Jayasuriya conceded that Dhawan’s batting gets him excited and reminds him of his time. Returning to the Test fold after almost a year, Shikhar Dhawan entertained everyone with a blistering 167-ball 190 in the first Test at Galle against Sri Lanka.

India make light work of Sri Lanka

India went on to rout Sri Lanka by 304 runs in the first Test as Sri Lanka struggled to match to India’s skill. The home team dropped a few catches to mark a forgettable outing at Galle, where their batsmen also struggled to post big scores. Sri Lanka hasn’t been in best of forms and nearly lost a Test match to Zimbabwe until Dickwella and Gunaratne combined to help them win. Jayasuriya, who is working hard to get things back on track for Sri Lankan country, said that he is confident that Sri Lanka will qualify directly for the 2019 World Cup in England.

‘Dhawan’s aggression is exciting’

Being a left-hander opener himself, there are a few similarities between him and Dhawan. He remarked that aggression could befuddle the opposition as they can’t plan in such situations. He also stated that Sri Lanka must look to counterattack in the next Test.

“Yes (laughs a bit, when asked Dhawan reminds Jayasuriya of his own batting). Aggression is always good. When you start to attack, then sometimes, the opposition doesn’t know what to plan. I think that was his tactic. It was good to see an attacking batsman, but we also need to have our own plans as a team to counter-attack however well they bow when it comes to the next match.”

Virat Kohli ended his run of low scores in Test cricket when he accumulated an unconquered hundred in the second innings. He hit just 5 fours and a six but still maintained a strike rate of 75.73 in his 136-ball knock. He now averages in excess of 50 in all forms of the game, a feat nobody else has achieved in the world. Jayasuriya played with a straight bat when asked if he would like Sri Lankan batsmen to learn a few things from Kohli.

“I’m not going into that, because it’s up to the individual player. To see a player and learn something is good. If they can learn something from Virat or anybody, that’ll be good for them. I hope they our cricketers will learn from these cricketers,” said Jayasuriya.

The second Test kicks off at the SSC in Colombo on Thursday.