IND vs SL 1st Test | ‘This team still needs to develop’: Sri Lanka's head coach Gary Kirsten

Despite going down to India in the first Test here head coach Gary Kirsten was pleased to see Sri Lankan players embracing the challenges that the redball format offers The 165run defeat to India was Sri Lankas second defeat in three Tests after going down to the West Indies by an innings and 217 runs at North Sound Antigua in JuneIm particularly excited by being involved with Sri Lankan cricket I think theres some great players here but the team still needs to develop It is sometimes tough when you dont play Test match cricket to understand how you need to play that Kirsten said in the postmatch press conferenceThis is now our third Test match in the space of a couple of months and I can already see the team developing and were starting to build some shape into the team But we need to be able to turn it into a performance at some point But as I said were kind of building that and developing that as best we can he addedKirsten was happy to see the fight Sri Lanka offered despite getting reduced to 99 for five in the initial part of their first innings and then dragged the match to the fifth and final day From being 99 for 5 at the beginning of the third day to then taking the Test match into the afternoon of the fifth day was particularly pleasing There was a bit of fight and that we were keen to try and stay in the Test matchWe still believed even this Wednesday morning that we could make something happen either win the Test match or certainly draw it So I was really pleased with the energy and the attitude of the team around that But I think if you look at the Test match we battled with the bat especially in our top order in both innings and that probably cost us he added Kirsten lauded young batter Sonal Dinusha who made a 100 and 84 across the Galle TestHis love for Test cricket and playing that way is particularly pleasing to me to watch and we certainly would encourage you know all our players to have that Test match mindset and attitude I think the challenge for the modern players especially in Sri Lanka is you dont play much Test cricket At least now weve got another six matches to go within the next six months or soSo its great to get into the Test match game a little bit and then to understand how to score runs and bat for long periods of time and have an influence on a game over a long period of time he said However Kirstens update on injured Sri Lankan players did not offer an upbeat scenario to the hosts ahead of the second TestKusal Mendis has got a proper hamstring injury Hes not going to be available for a while Pathum Nissanka as well and Dinesh Chandimal are also not available for the next Test So were missing a few guys from that perspective but it creates a great opportunity for young players to come in and stake their claim In fact players that have got really good firstclass records in this country So its a good opportunity for them he notedFormer India head coach Kirsten also lauded Devdutt Padikkal for playing a proper Test match innings handing advantage to India I think India did really well in their first innings Devdutt Padikkal played one of the better Test match innings that Ive seen He didnt play too aggressively but just played within himself and just batted for a long period and was a good lesson for any Test match batsman he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever