Colombo: India's fast-medium bowler Ishant Sharma has fired off a shot in the direction of Kumar Sangakkara ahead of the three-Test series starting in Galle on August 12, saying he "will go hard" at the retiring Sri Lankan batsman.
Ishant took 5-23 against the Board President's XI in the three-day practice game here, as the hosts were bowled out for 121 runs in reply to India's 351.
"He is playing for his country and I am playing for my country. We played together only in the IPL and this is an international match. So I will not think that he is playing his last game, I will go hard at him," said Ishant after the day's play.
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Talking about his wicket-burst, the bowler added, "It was a pretty good spell. But more than wickets, if you get overs in your bag, that's more important in the practice game. That gives you confidence. Maybe tomorrow after lunch we can bowl for two sessions and get more overs in. Then we have two more days in the nets before the first Test. So we should be able to do enough before the Test."
On the day, Varun Aaron also took two wickets, as did R Ashwin while Harbhajan Singh got one. While the Indian skipper Virat Kohli will be looking to play three spinners in the Test series, as per his pre-series departure conference, the pitches laid out for the three matches will have a say in the matter.
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"A major difference here from India is the ball. They also leave some grass on the wickets here so the ball is seaming and swinging a bit. As you can see we also lost three wickets quickly in the second innings and they also lost quite a few wickets. So, the new ball is important and after that how consistent you are with the old is going to make a huge difference," said Ishant.
