The national cricket team has been a breath of fresh air this year. After the bitter disappointment of the World Cup, it has been exciting to see Sri Lanka playing their fearless, attacking brand of cricket.
The change of approach has certainly helped them to turn things around and it is only hoped that the status quo remains. If they persevere with the current approach, there’s no reason why they should be ranked among the top five teams in the world by the end of this year. They are currently ranked seventh in ODIs.
The balance of the side has been a talking point for quite some time now and Sri Lanka’s over-reliance on their all-rounders was a recipe for disaster. Sadly, the authorities didn’t see the need to move away from their dependence on all-rounders and the end result was a horror show in the World Cup where Sri Lanka finished ninth and failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy.
Last year, there were times when they played three all-rounders in the playing eleven. At occasions there were four all-rounders featuring in the side. In Trivandrum in January 2023, Sri Lanka played Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage and Chamika Karunaratne. The approach was not productive.
A fresh approach under the new selection panel has seen the team falling back to the six batters, four bowlers and one all-rounder concept. That looks far more sensible and results are there to be seen. Should they adopt the same strategy for T-20 cricket? It wouldn’t be a bad idea.
This year Sri Lanka have won four series inside two months and a fifth series will be complete if they win either on Monday or Wednesday. It has been a good turnaround. Yes, people can say that we shouldn’t get carried away as after all this is Zimbabwe and Afghanistan.
That may be true but Afghanistan have been a tough side to beat in recent times. In the World Cup, they beat three former champions – Sri Lanka, England and Pakistan.
Furthermore, the team has shown signs of improvement since the dawn of new year with fielding being a key area that has stood out. Avishka Fernando’s direct hit to dismiss Afghan opener Ibrahim Zadran, who had been a thorn in the Sri Lankan flesh during previous tours, is a case in point.
T-20 captain Wanindu Hasaranga repeating last week that he will stress a lot on fielding moving forward was like music on the ears for all fans who want to see the wellbeing of Sri Lankan cricket.
Prior to Hasaranga of course there was Pathum Nissanka, who revealed his ambition to become world’s best batter. Not since the great Kumar Sangakkara have Sri Lanka had a batter in the topmost position and these are all good signs moving forward.
Pathum is currently ranked 18th in ODIs and when the rankings are updated later this month, he will close in among the top ten batters.
With former captain Sanath Jayasuriya in his capacity of Consultant Coach of the High-Performance Center stressing on playing the fearless Sri Lankan brand of cricket, the players have moved about like having a spring in their steps.
The batters haven’t been holding back their shots willing to attack from ball one while the bowlers have set up imaginative fields and tried to knock the opposition out rather than containing them, seen as the recipe for success in white ball cricket by the side not too long ago.
The team is not depending too heavily on the usual suspects to win matches and it is good to see the likes of Avishka Fernando, Asitha Fernando and Matheesha Pathirana stepping up.
Another very positive thing has been playing on good surfaces. We fooled ourselves by thinking that everything was tickety-boo when the national team beat Australia in an ODI series at home. But we conveniently forgot the fact that the series was played on doctored tracks.
Your deficiencies are badly exposed when you go for ICC events. Batsmen will adjust. But the problem is for the bowlers who have no idea how to contain the run flow on good tracks. Someone like Dunith Wellalage looked unplayable during some of those home series, but at ICC events, he was a pale shadow of his former self. Thankfully sanity has prevailed.
Every time the team won a couple of series, we have been given the false assurance that good days are back for the team. Soon it was all back to square one. Hopefully, the turn around this time is for real and Sri Lanka will begin to compete with the best of the world. The team should do well in the upcoming series against Bangladesh as well, but the real challenge will come after June as Sri Lanka travel to the World Cup, England and South Africa. They will also host India, West Indies and New Zealand.
