“It was incredibly difficult to face them” - Dimuth Karunaratne names Indian duo before retirement in SL vs AUS 2025 2nd Test

Veteran Sri Lankan opener Dimuth Karunaratne has opened up on the challenge of facing Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja during the Test series against India at home in 2017. With Karunaratne set to retire after the second Test against Australia in Galle, the southpaw recalled how Ashwin and Jadeja would hardly provide any loose deliveries once they began bowling in tandem.

India managed to defeat Sri Lanka in all three Tests, sweeping the series 3-0 as Ashwin and Jadeja shared 30 wickets between them. Nevertheless, Karunaratne was Sri Lanka's highest run-getter in the series, peeling off 285 runs at 47.50, including a century and a half-century.

Speaking to ESPN Cricinfo ahead of his 100th Test, the 35-year-old observed that the key to negating Jadeja and Ashwin is to force them into more spells as the loose deliveries then start coming. The left-hander also reminisced about how he limited himself to just three shots against the spin duo.

"I learned that in 2017 in a series against India. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were bowling, and it was incredibly difficult to face them. Once they start bowling together there's not a loose ball to be found anywhere. They tend to start bowling very early in the innings as well, so there's just no chance to score," Karunaratne said. "I learned a lot of patience in that series. I'd bat out their first spells, second spells, third spells, and eventually the loose balls started to come. In that series, I had a small, simple gameplan - I'm only playing these three shots, nothing else. It worked nicely. Ashwin couldn't get me out lbw, or caught behind."

Karunaratne will become the seventh Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests, joining an elite group of cricketers. Although the opener has over 7,000 runs in the format, he has struggled in recent months and registered two single-figure scores in the opening Test against Australia.

"Probably my best innings as captain" - Dimuth Karunaratne on his ton in Bengaluru

Dimuth Karunaratne. (Image Credits: Getty)

The classy opener also recalled the pink-ball Test against India in Bengaluru in 2022, pointing out that Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah made his life difficult under lights. When asked where he would rank that hundred, the Sri Lankan said (as per the aforementioned source):

"I'd put that third (laughs). There was a really tough period where we had to bat a few overs against the new ball under lights, and the end of one day, I remember telling Kusal Mendis that if I survived that period, I'd somehow get a hundred the next day. (Jasprit) Bumrah and (Mohammed) Shami with the pink ball were incredibly hard to see through that night. But then things got into a flow, and I could score runs. Probably my best innings as captain."

Sri Lanka will be keen to draw the two-Test series against Australia when the second game gets underway on February 6 in Galle.