'Dream ball for any spinner': Ashwin praises Dunith Wellalage but also warns Sri Lanka

Dunith Wellalage couldn't have a better start to his maiden Asia Cup campaign. The left arm spinner ran through the Indian batting line up as he also registered his first five-fer in ODI cricket. The former Sri Lankan U-19 captain was the peak of the bowlers as the hosts restricted the Indian team to a pretty low total.

3 things you need to know

• Dunith Wellalage led Sri Lanka in the U-19 World Cup
• This is his first Asia Cup campaign
• This is also his first five wicket haul in the limited over format

R Ashwin showers praises on Dunith Wellalage

Both Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma didn't have much problems while facing the other bowlers but the introduction of Wellalage did the trick. He started the proceedings by removing the dangerous GIll and thgen it went to be a flurry of wickets as Rohit, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul joined the ranks.

Also Read: 'Undeniably one of the greatest ever': Shikhar Dhawan lauds Rohit Sharma for historic feat

Gill was completely dethroned by the youngster as the player failed to judge the line while defending forward and the ball lodged the stumps by beating his bat. Ravichandran Ashwin seems to be pretty impressed by the bowler's antics and took to social media as he praised the way he bamboozled Gill. The Rajasthan Royals spinner posted on X, " That ball from Wellalage to Gill is a dream ball for any spinner, but most importantly a big endorsement to the triple spin threat."

Also Read: SL vs IND Live Score, Asia Cup 2023 latest updates

Dunith Wellalage admits Virat Kohli's wicket is special

Wellalage later admitted that the wicket of Virat was very special to him. During the mid innigs break he said to Star Sports, "Yeah, specially I want to thank by teammates and bowling coach, special thanks to the bowling coach. All of them have been part of this. I am happy with the performance and it was not possible without their support. Virat Kohli's wicket is a very special one (smiles). I tried to bowl my normal ones and didn't look to do much variations."