Star batsman Kumar Sangakkara who has been rested for the last two matches against India wasn’t that happy about leaving in the middle of the series as he left the hotel on Monday evening to head back home.
“Nobody likes to leave a series in the middle, especially when losing. We always like to stay together and earn a win when the team is losing. Leaving while winning is no problem,” said Sangakkara prior to leaving the hotel.
Sangakkara wasn’t that happy about a hastily arranged series at first either where he tweeted about having to end their fitness program abruptly. He also suffered from a back injury prior to the series but continuing to keep fit has helped him to overcome injury and was feeling well after three matches.
“The squad was named only for the first three matches. I have a small back injury. I think they thought about that and thought about safety. But it’s totally OK now. And because of me (leaving) there will be a chance for some other. That’s important,” added Sangakkara.
Sangakkara also spoke about preparation for the tour.
“We like to win a series in countries like Australia and India. We should have good plans and preparations and play with a competitive attitude,” said Sangakkara.
Sangakkara also said it was disappointing for him to leave on the back of a series defeat in India.
“It’s very disappointing that at the end of the day we can’t complain or trot out excuses. We came here as one of the best one day sides in the World.”
Nevertheless Sangakkara described about the youngsters in the side and went onto say that Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne are the best Sri Lanka has got at the moment.
“It’s not good to put too much of pressure on these guys. I personally think Thirimanne (Lahiru) and Chandimal (Dinesh) are the best young players we have. They are coming over here for the 4th and 5th ODI and I think that’s fantastic.”
He also said Chandimal should be given the vacant batting position after he left as he has done well at number three in the Sri Lanka A team.
“Even to have a guy like Chandimal batting at number three, it is very important if you take his record, he has scored a lot of runs there and struggled batting down the order. So Chandimal can bat at three Thirimanne can bat at six.
