India’s rookie spinner Manav Suthar has showered praise on his senior partner Ravindra Jadeja amid the first Test match against Sri Lanka at Galle. Suthar said Jadeja’s consistency in hitting the same spot is world-class.

Jadeja is known to land his deliveries at the same place and bamboozle the opposition’s batters with his consistent length. While Jadeja gets some balls to turn, some go straight, which puts the batters in doubt.

Jadeja was once again at his best on day three of the opening game, returning with figures of 3-57. The left-arm orthodox spinner also completed 350 Test wickets in his glorious career and joined Kapil Dev, Sir Ian Botham and Daniel Vettori as players with 4000 Test and 350 Test wickets.

Speaking about the experience of bowling alongside Jadeja, Suthar said in the post-day press conference, “Lots to learn from him. His consistency in hitting same spot is world class.”

On the other hand, Sri Lanka were left reeling at 90-5, but Niroshan Dickwella and Sonal Dinusha added 146 runs for the sixth wicket to help the hosts stay in the contest.

“We wanted to stick to our plans of first session, ball was turning in all sessions and they played really well in second session,” Suthar told the reporters on Monday. “There wasn’t much change in our approach. There were some umpire calls also… they rotated the strike really well. The ball didn’t get that soft.”

Suthar said the plan was to bowl in the right areas on the third day.

He added, “Plan was to bowl in good areas. Simple plan. Just to be on the line, and keep it stump to stump.”

At lunch on day four, India were leading by 294 runs.