Dinesh Chandimal heaps praises on Kusal Mendis

Sri Lanka Test captain Dinesh Chandimal on Monday said that he is satisfied with wicketkeeper-batsman Kusal Mendis' performance in the recent concluded New Zealand Test series.

"He (Mendis) thinks a lot about his game off the field from day to day, and he is a player with a big future. I have congratulated him on getting 1000 runs, and that he did it at such a young age. That is a big achievement. I hope he can play just as well going forward," ICC quoted Chandimal, as saying.

Ever since making his debut in 2015, the 23-year-old Mendis had shown a lot of promise. He made noteworthy contributions in the two-Test series against New Zealand; his unbeaten 141 runs in the first Test helped his side save the game from a dire position. While he scored 67 runs in the second Test.

Mendis has amassed 1023 runs from 12 matches at 46.50, comfortably making 2018 as his most productive year in the longest format.

Sri Lanka have won just four of their 12 Tests, including an overseas series win in Bangladesh and a 2-0 whitewash of South Africa. Reflecting on his Test squad, Chandimal said, "I think overall the Test team has done pretty well this year. The major regret is that we weren't able to take the chances that we had to turn that England series around. But as a captain, I am really happy about the style of cricket we played this year. There are big areas for improvement. We need to change those things and make sure the coming year is a good one."

Talking about the areas of improvement, the captain said, "When a pitch is good for batting, we need to learn a little bit more on how we can bowl better on those pitches, and that's something you get with experience.