Rex Clementine at Old Trafford

Since that lion-hearted seam bowler Chaminda Vaas retired, for many years now, Sri Lanka have depended heavily on their spinners to win Test matches. Rangana Herath did the job for years and then another left-arm spinner in Prabath Jayasuriya is doing a fine job at the moment. But the problem arises when you travel to places like England, Australia and South Africa. Spin won’t win you Test matches there. You need pace. Asitha Fernando is providing the answers to it.

At Old Trafford in the first Test against England, Asitha clocked up speeds above 140 kmph. He is not the quickest bowler in Sri Lanka, but what makes him the nation’s first choice fast bowler is his skill set.

It is with the older ball that Asitha is brutal. He makes the batsmen uncomfortable going after them with short balls aimed at the ribcage. At five foot and six inches, Asitha is not a tall man, something that you require to be successful to be a fast bowler. But somehow he has discovered the art of generating bounce and has won Sri Lanka a few Test matches. His other strength is his ability to reverse swing the ball to deadly effect.

But at Old Trafford, on day two, it was with the new ball that he created havoc. After Sri Lanka’s batters had been blown away for 236 in the first innings, Asitha kept his team in the game with a superb spell that made the British press wanting to know more about him.

Ben Duckett was trapped leg before wicket with a ball that swung back in and the batter was a sitting duck when he missed the ball trying to swing it across.

Then Ollie Pope was beaten by a beauty with the inswinger bowling him through the gate. Joe Root, so much a thorn in the Sri Lankan flesh over the years looked poised for another big score. He played one delivery thinking it was reverse swinging but it wasn’t and the inside edge was sharply snapped up by Dinesh Chandimal behind the stumps.

Asitha bowled 14 accurate overs on the second day and at one point he looked as if capable of taking a wicket every ball. On day three though, he was a bit off colour, yet finished with a four wicket haul in the first innings.

Fast bowling coach Aaqib Javed had high praise for Asitha.

“Asitha has done really well taking early wickets. This is a low bounce pitch. Glad to see him taking wickets early on on that kind of surface. Then he got the ball to reverse swing. That was the challenge coming into England and he was on the money on day one.”

“Not many people know about Asitha’s ability. Without changing his wrist, he can swing the ball both ways. I told him that after Mohammad Asif of Pakistan I saw that quality in him. If he hits the right spot, he will be very successful. He bowled at good lengths today. If he hits those lengths regularly he is the bowler to watch on this tour,” Aaqib added.

“Fast bowlers change their wrist positions when they want to try variety. The thing with Asitha is that he is so gifted, without changing the wrist position he can send the ball either way.

For many years Sri Lanka have used Asita for only red ball cricket. Recently his work load has been increased as he has featured in white ball cricket as well. The team will be better off sticking with him for only Test match cricket as they have many options for limited overs cricket.