Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur revealed that Isuru Udana is unlikely to play the 3rd and final T20I against India, in the press conference held after the team’s loss in the 2nd T20I in Indore.
Sri Lanka’s star left arm seamer looked in discomfort after he made a dive in the 4th over of the Indian innings and left the field without delivering a single ball in the match.
“Seeing him in the dressing room, he is in a lot of pain. I still don’t know about the diagnosis and I hope we can get him back for the West Indies in February, but I even think that could be a push” –Mickey Arthur said.
Sri Lanka faced a hammering by Virat Kohli’s men in the 2nd T20I as the visitors surrendered meekly by 7 wickets on Tuesday. Sri Lanka certainly missed the services of Udana as skipper Malinga had to fill the void with Dhananjaya de Silva and Dasun Shanaka.
Arthur added, “We didn’t get enough, batters got starts but starts are not good enough. Somebody needs to get a 70/80 for us and that should be the journey for these young cricketers. We have serious work to do in term of game plans, match awareness and playing in big moments”
This is Arthur’s first T20I series as Sri Lanka’s coach, and he faces the challenge of overseeing their T20 World Cup plans, which will begin with qualifying for the tournament in Australia later this year.
“We have a very good young core group of players 8 months ahead of the 2020 World Cup. It will be a challenge but I’m even thinking one World Cup further than that for the 2021 T20 World Cup in India where the guys will be real finished articles” – he concluded.
India leads the 3-match T20I series 1-0 and will play their next T20I against Sri Lanka on Friday the 10th January in Pune.
