The first half of the year has been a great ride for Sri Lanka with the team winning seven of the eight series they have taken part across all formats. Some of the changes that were made following a disappointing World Cup in India last year have stood the team in good stead.
The national selection panel under Upul Tharanga has brought in fresh thinking and some of the players they had backed have delivered the goods. Kamindu Mendis has been a breath of fresh air on his comeback and went on to win the Player of the Series award in the two-match Test series in Bangladesh. There were doubts about Lahiru Kumara being able to go through a Test match let alone a series, but he’s come off with flying colours having finished as the highest wicket-taker in Bangladesh.
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Other aspects the selectors have stressed on such as fitness and fielding have yielded good results too. When Avishka Fernando, one of the slow movers of the side effects a run out with a direct hit, that too the opposition’s best batter, you know the team has been doing something right.
Sending career coach Jerome Jayaratne back to the High-Performance Center at RPS from Maitland Place needs to be commended as well while Upul Chandana has made a big impact as Fielding Coach of the national team.
While the first half of the year has been smooth sailing, bigger challenges will come the team’s way in the second half when they travel to the United States for the T-20 World Cup.
The other big challenges this year are the Test series in England and the tour to South Africa. There’s also a home Test series against New Zealand and the outcome of these series will decide Sri Lanka’s standing in the ICC Test Championship.
From being last at the start of the year in the World Test Championship, Sri Lanka have made great strides to move to fourth.
In white ball cricket, Sri Lanka will host India, West Indies and New Zealand in 2024. For a while now, the team has been lingering in the bottom half of ICC Rankings in all three formats and if they continue the winning streak, there’s no doubt they will make upward movement. But it is no easy task. The oppositions ahead of them are much stronger than the teams they beat in the first four months of 2024 such as Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
One area the selectors need to keep an eye on is having their fast bowlers fresh. If Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera, Matheesha Pathirana, Nuwan Thushara and Binura Fernando are firing on all cylinders, Sri Lanka will be a force to be reckoned with in the US and West Indies next month.
The big problem during recent ICC events has been that several of their leading bowlers were injured and unavailable or broke down during the competition. In 2021 World T-20 in UAE, they were quite impressive but injuries to quicks hurt them. The following year when Australia hosted the T-20 World Cup, several of their fast bowlers went down with injuries forcing the selectors to scratch the barrel.
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The team will be glad that captain Wanindu Hasaranga is available for selection from the first game during the T-20 World Cup. The star player was handed a suspension for dissent and missed games in Bangladesh and was facing similar predicament during the World Cup but Sri Lanka were able to overcome that tricky situation. Hasaranga can not afford a showdown with match officials again as a third offence inside six months will certainly land him in hot water.
Hasaranga is not just the team’s captain, but their key player in T-20 cricket. He is deadly with his leg-spin and plays the floater role to perfection providing the team much needed runs when the field has spread out. For having such an impact player suspended is something the team can not afford.
You do feel for Hasaranga. He lost his cool after being hard done by two umpiring decisions. But in cricket some umpiring decisions go your way and some go against you. You’ve got to take them on the chin and move on.
Hasaranga has been an international cricketer for seven years now and should know better. It is time the selectors had a quiet word with him.
This certainly has been an interesting year. Pathum Nissanka has scaled new heights in limited overs cricket. Charith Asalanka finished some tight games under pressure. Matheesha Pathirana has been superb with death over bowling but Nuwan Thushara perhaps outperformed him with a hat-trick. Kamindu Mendis has showcased that he is a multi-format player able to take on big challenges. These are exciting times indeed.
