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| Yuvraj Singh in Ahmedabad on Monday. |
Ahmedabad: Chanaka Welegedara may have rocked the Indian top-order with a controlled opening spell of seam bowling Monday, but it was only moments before the toss that the left-arm pacer was told about his participation.
It so happened that Nuwan Kulasekara was dropped and Thilan Thusara hadn’t recovered from the shoulder injury sustained from crashing into Kaushal Silva on the eve of the Test.
Welegedara was told to straightaway put on his whites and head to the field. That, however, didn’t deter the left-arm pacer from unleashing a fiery spell (7-2-28-3) that left the hosts dazed for a while.
“There was a bit of moisture in the wicket, in the morning, and I tried to capitalise on that… It was a typical Test match wicket as things settled down after lunch,” said Welegedara, who made his debut against England, in Galle, in December 2007.
Having had a stint at the MRF Pace Foundation, Welegedara credits his success to Dennis Lillee. “I learnt a lot of technical details while in Chennai,” Welegedara said.
Going into the Test, he was undaunted by the prospect of having to bowl to big names like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.
“I always respect the batsmen… But at the same time I also knew that if I bowled in the right areas I had a chance… That’s exactly what happened. I will always cherish the wicket of Sachin,” he said.
Welegedara may be 28, but the six feet one Kandy pacer has a lot of cricket left in him.
