Kirsten urges batsmen to do something different

Colombo, Jul 25 (UNI) Criticising the batsmen for their lacklusture performance against Sri Lanka at the SSC here, India coach Gary Kirsten today said lack of proper shot selection and losing crucial wickets at regular intervals was the reason behind the debacle.

''We've got ourselves to blame. We did not have correct shot selection, we lost four wickets in 15 overs that has brought us under pressure,'' Kirsten told mediapersons after the end of the day's play today. ''We didn't play well yesterday and some poor shot making today mean everyone has got reason to be disappointed.'' India were struggling on 159 for six when bad light ended play early on the third day of the first Test here.

At stumps VVS Laxman was batting on 19 while captain Anil Kumble was batting on one.

Kirsten admitted that Sri Lanka had dominated the match so far.

''It has been a really disappointing Test match,'' he rued.

The former Proteas opener called on the Indian batsmen to stage a fight back and do something different.

''It's a tough battle and we need to understand that we need to do different things. It's a great team and we have some great batsmen and each one needs to think what he can do differently,'' he said.

''We are fully aware of the way we played and we need to accept the responsibilities for the way we played. We have got a lot of hard work to do to save this Test match.'' He was also of the view that the poor performance of the batsmen should not be related with the huge target set by the Sri Lankans.

''We felt pretty confident. India is a great team and they need to play aggressively,'' he asserted.

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