It was the spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin that rattled Sri Lankan batting order on Day 1 of the second Test in Nagpur. On Day 2, the batting combination of Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara took care of Sri Lanka's bowling attack. Both the batsman scored their centuries and took India to a healthy lead of 107 runs at stumps. The performance displayed by the two batsmen was praised by Sri Lanka's batting coach Thilan Samaraweera. Speaking to reporters after the day's play, Samaraweera said that Sri Lanka can learn from Indian batsmen on how to tackle spin bowling. "When the field was up, they attacked and when the field was spread, they started grinding. That's the way to play spin bowling. They batted really well. Good Test cricket batting. They still managed to score over three runs an over and we can learn a lot," he said. Dilruwan Perera had an especially tough day on the pitch as the off-spinner gave away 117 runs in 21 overs. Speaking of Perera's performance, Samaraweera said that Indian batsmen were aware which bowlers were to be targeted. "Today India knew whom to attack. The two seamers and Herath bowled well, but unfortunately, they attacked Dilruwan as most players are right-handed. All three (Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli) were right-handers and they handled the off-spinner well," he said. The 41-year old also went on to add that current batsmen in Sri Lankan team have continuously struggled against quality spin bowling and time has come to rectify those gaps in the game. "This group in last two years has not batted well against spin. I have observed that and lot of work for us to do in the future," he said. Indian spinners managed to clean the visitors' middle-order on the first day and ended Sri Lanka's innings at 205. While Ashwin took 4 wickets, his left-arm counterpart took 3 wickets. Speaking on the batting performance by Sri Lankan batsmen, Samaraweera said, "As I have said, in the last two years, we have had problems with spin. It is a major concern for me. Traditionally, we have been good players of spin bowling, but last two years we have struggled." He added that he is looking to address the issues as soon as possible. "I need about four to five months to identify things. After this India series, we have two or three weeks before we play Bangladesh. Then we have Independence Cup (T20 tri-nation) and then we have a two-month break. That’s the time I want to address this issue," he said.
