Dhawan keen to play his natural game

India opener Shikhar Dhawan said he wasn’t too displeased with the way he got out after making a rapid hundred in the third Test against Sri Lanka.

Dhawan got out taking on left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara and his wicket was the catalyst for a Sri Lanka fightback.

India still reached 329/6 by the close, a score Dhawan feels was a good effort.

Speaking after play on a day where his 119 was the top score Dhawan said: “I was saying jokingly that if you bat like a king, you should also get out like a king, you should not be dismissed like a soldier.

“If you have made runs aggressively, then you will get out that way too. That’s how it is. I know I am an aggressive batsman, so I would rather get out that way than getting out in the slips and being defensive because that is not my natural game.”

Dhawan gave praise to Left-arm wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan, who claimed the prize wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli.

The opener also praised Pushpakumara who got both he and opening partner Lokesh Rahul out.

He said: “[Sandakan] is very nice, he was turning the ball; one odd ball was turning a lot. It’s hard to pick his googly also. Specially once we got out, the way he came back and bowled, it was nice for them.

“Left-arm bowler [Malinda Pushpakumara] is also good and he took wickets today; he has been bowling consistently on the right spot for them.”

Dhawan remained confident that the remaining batsmen for India would be able to build an imposing total.

He added: “We were playing our shots and got out, it was not as if we were getting out because of the wicket or anything.

“We were just playing our shots and got out. After that, the Sri Lankan bowlers bowled well and pulled the match a little bit on their side but we got a decent score and still got good batsmen to go and score more runs tomorrow.”

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