Sri Lanka’s rising spinner Dunith Wellalage had a dream outing against India in the Super 4 stage of Asia Cup 2023. Dunith Wellalage not only took his maiden 5 wicket haul but also contributed with the bat and almost pulled off the heist when the top order failed.
Sri Lanka’s management will need to have some serious talks with the batters as the target was not tough to attain in modern cricket. Perhaps, the skipper Dasun Shanaka must bat up the order in the middle order at No.5 position rather than playing the role of finisher
Dunith Wellalage dismissed many batters when they were defending- Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir was having an interaction with Star Sports and was quite astounded with the spell of Dunith Wellalage and stated that it is not easy to be a successful spinner in Sri Lanka with less variations. Gautam Gambhir said that he is seeing a quality spinner in the form of Dunith Wellalage after the legendary Rangana Herath.
“Actually, you don’t see such bowlers being this successful in Sri Lanka. If you see Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan, they had a lot of variations. A bowler like this has come after Rangana Herath. See the batters he dismissed – Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya,” said Gautam Gambhir.
“Think about the level of batters they are. He dismissed many batters when they were defending. It’s not they got dismissed while trying to hit sixes or against half-trackers. If you get three batters out while defending, it is a great sign for Sri Lankan cricket,” he added.
Don’t forget that Dunith Wellalage took an exceptional catch as well- Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir said that it would be quite tough for the management to leave out Dunith Wellalage now as he had come into the team in place of injured Wanindu Hasaranga. Gautam Gambhir pointed out that Dunith Wellalage had a near perfect day and contributed in all the 3 facets of the game.
“The surprising thing is that if Hasaranga had been fit, he (Wellalage) might have not even been in the squad. How will you drop him from the squad now? It was amazing bowling and for me, more than bowling, amazing batting as well, the sort of cricketer he looked under pressure,” said Gautam Gambhir.
“Don’t forget that he took an exceptional catch as well. Ishan Kishan’s catch was not very easy. Overall, there couldn’t have been a better game for any 20-year-old player against such a team, where you pick up five wickets, score 42 runs and take an excellent catch,” he added.