Sri Lanka T20 World Cup-winning captain, Lasith Malinga who came in for harsh criticism in the past few days over the axing of Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne form the T20 team explained the logic behind the decision yesterday prior to their first T20 international in more than a year to be played at R. Premadasa Stadium against Pakistan starting at 7pm.Today.
“As the captain I get a chance to participate in the selection process and anyone can express their view on the outcome. We have a clear goal that is to test whether the players who had performed well in domestic T20 tournaments are good enough to face the international challenge and then pick good players for the Sri Lanka T20 team.” said Malinga.
Expressing his views further Malinga said they are only left with a few T20 matches before the World Cup and it’s important to finish experimenting as soon as possible and play as many matches as possible with a settled side.
“Two players (Chandimal and Thirimanne) who had played T20 from 2010 are not in the team. We know their capabilities, there is no need to test them again,” said Malinga.
“If we are aiming for the 2019 World Cup there are about 60 odd matches where we can do experiments. But, now (for 2016 World Cup) we are left with about 10 Matches and about six months,” added Malinga.
Malinga accepted that he isn’t 100% and that he is not performing well at the moment. But he said with just four overs to be bowled in T20, he can perform well. “I was not 100%.before the World Cup. I had an ankle surgery and my pace has come down thereafter. After the operation, I played the World Cup directly without any warm up matches because I wanted to play the World cup for the country. I became the highest wicket taker for Sri Lanka still I couldn’t give 100% for the team.
I know there is good young blood in Sri Lanka and I like to compete with them,” said Malinga who was dropped for the fifth and final ODI against Pakistan at Hambantota.
The Sri Lanka T20 team comprises of many young players while a player like Chamara Kapugedara who hasn’t played for the country since 2012 have been recalled.
“I hope to get back to the ODI team by playing well and improving my fitness level. There are no big hopes but if the captain and selectors decide I’m good enough, I’ll play whatever the game they give me,” said Malinga.
Squads:
Sri Lanka : Lasith Malinga (Captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Kithruwan Vithanage, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka, Chamara Kapugedera, Shehan Jayasuriya, Thisara Perera, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Kulasekara, Binura Fernando, Chaturanga de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana
Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (Captain), Ahmed Shehzad, Nauman Anwar, Mohammad Hafeez, Mukhtar Ahmed, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Sohail Tanvir, Imad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Zia-ul-Haq
