After starring effort, Karunaratne targets 20 to 25 Test hundreds’

Dimuth Karunaratne was named the Player of the Series after Sri Lanka’s 2-0 Test win over South Africa, his 356 runs standing out in a low-scoring series.

Karunaratne, who has been zooming up the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings for batsmen, has been in the middle of a purple patch. He scored 158*, 60, 53 and 85 to total 356 runs in the two Tests against South Africa.

The century was his eighth in 51 Tests – five of them have come since October 2016. And he wants to add to those numbers.

“My personal goal that I would be happy with is to get to 20 to 25 Test hundreds, and hopefully one day I will get there,” Karunaratne said after the series. “I want to be a match-winning performer and give my best. When I do that, rankings will automatically come.”

Karunaratne recently gave the tour of the West Indies a miss. He was recovering from a hand injury, and skipped the tour because he felt he wasn’t match fit, and the selectors agreed. He went with the ‘A’ team to Bangladesh instead.

“Actually, when the West Indies Tests started, I was fit. But I didn’t have any match practice behind me. So the selectors told me to be fit for South Africa series and wanted me to play Bangladesh games. That was a good call, because even when I started playing in that series, I wasn’t too confident in my body. I was fearful that the hand might break again. But once I spent a couple of hours at the crease, I started to feel like it was okay, and I sort of slipped into my natural game,” explained Karunaratne.

Like other Test specialists, life can at times be unexciting for someone like Karunaratne. Sri Lanka don’t have any Test cricket till England arrive in the island nation in November for three matches, and the domestic season will also take flight after a while.

“That’s the biggest challenge for someone who is a Test specialist, you have to go months without a game,” agreed Karunaratne. “This time, since the Bangladesh A matches were there, I could get back to form. Breaks are good, but I need to be at the top of my game.

“To get back to being that settled at the crease and to keep that intensity is not easy. But I have done that throughout my career. If there are any domestic matches – any kinds of matches – before the next Test, I will definitely play them.”