'With bowlers like Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, that team of mine would have beaten India in India in 3 days' - Arjuna Ranatunga may have spoken with legendary confidence, but reality had other plans. The last we checked, Sri Lanka is still searching for their first-ever Test win in India! Since 1982, the Islanders have played 22 Tests on Indian soil, and forget wrapping up a win inside three days—they haven’t wrapped up a victory at all. Instead, they’ve been handed 13 defeats and managed 9 draws. So, about that three-day victory… maybe in another lifetime, sir?
Team India was on a ruthless run at home which saw them not losing a single Test series in their own backyard for 12 years until that streak was broken by New Zealand.
The Indian cricket team saw a decline in form in the longest format as they went on to lose the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 in Australia and hence failed to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
Ranatunga also said that the current Sri Lanka side is nearly as good as the Sri Lanka teams of his generation.
"There is no dearth of talent even in this current Sri Lankan team. Overall, it's a pretty talented lot. Looking back at the 1996 team, only Aravinda (De Silva) was a few notches above the present team players," Ranatunga said.
"The actual problem lies within the SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket board). The management of the board is corrupt, which is the root cause of all problems," he said.
Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup-winning captain also had a piece of advice for Virat Kohli to find his mojo back.
"I think what Kohli needs to do is speak to people like Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar or Rahul Dravid. That's what he can do. They can certainly help him out," Ranatunga suggested.
