Shikhar Dhawan’s dropped catch hurt Sri Lanka Men on Day 1: Asanka Gurusinha

Following a tough opening day for the hosts Sri Lanka against visitors India in the first of the three-Test series at the Galle International Stadium on Wednesday, Sri Lanka coach Asanka Gurusinha has rued that the dropped catch of opener Shikhar Dhawan early on in the innings proved to be costly for the home side. Dhawan was dropped on 31, while he went on to score an emphatic 190 off 168 deliveries. Adding salt to the injury, fielder Asela Gunaratne injured his finger while attempting the catch off Dhawan, which eventually turned out to be a thumb fracture, virtually ruling him out of the Test series. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs Sri Lanka 2017 – 1st Test at Galle

“It is hard to appreciate bowlers’ effort after you concede 400 runs in a day. India are a very strong side. We dropped a catch of Dhawan and then paid a price. Not sure what would have happened had that catch been taken. It was a double blow. We dropped the catch and lost a player,” he said. “It’s sad. He will undergo a surgery in a short while. Most probably he will be out for a minimum of four weeks. We will know in the next 48 hours about the time frame. He has fractured his thumb in three places. As soon as we saw the x- rays we knew it was very serious and we rushed him to Colombo,” he added, as reported by PTI. Asela Gunaratne to miss Test series vs India: Reports

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“We know Dhawan wasn’t in the initial squad but then he came back into the side and showed the selectors what he is capable of. It was a good track for him and we also ended up bowling to his strength, and he capitalised on that,” Gurusinha continued. Dhawan, Pujara smother Sri Lanka on Day 1

“But we have to be honest that we didn’t bowl well. Nuwan Pradeep was the only outstanding bowler I thought. It’s a really good batting wicket. I heard Virat Kohli talking that it is a good batting wicket. We bowled on both sides of the wicket as well. Dhawan just took over the game. His 190-run knock was one reason we find ourselves in this situation,” he asserted.

Nevertheless, Gurusinha was confident of a good show from the hosts in the coming days, starting from day 2. “They will recall the manner in which Lanka beat India turning around a similarly dominant performance from the visitors on day one of the series back in 2015. You never know. This is Galle and after scoring 600 runs you can still lose a Test match. Our batsmen have to just to go out and play good cricket. Let’s see what happens in the last two days. We need to first try and get India out tomorrow. We will probably bat somewhere tomorrow,” he concluded.