By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team for the Australian T20 series, Lasith Malinga said the forthcoming tour will be a useful test ahead of the next year’s T20 World Cup, which will be played in the same continent. He said that anyone performing well in this tour will certainly get a better chance of making it to the world cup squad.
The last occasion Sri Lanka played a T20I series in Australia in 2017 they won by a 2-1 margin. The present team comprises five players from that tour namely Malinga, Lakshan Sandakan, Dickwella, Kusal Mendis and Dasun Shanaka.
While praising the efforts of the team that defeated the no. 1 ranked T20 side Malinga said the young and inexperienced players more than made up for the loss of four senior cricket “I am looking at it from the brighter side. My absence has given another cricketer to perform. Likewise in the future, I have no big ambitions. I have retired from Test and ODIs and my only goal is the T20I. When I took over the captaincy I said whoever is captain we need to build a strong T20 squad for the World T20. We are progressing on the right track and the Pakistan tour showed there was a new leader in waiting in Dasun Shanaka. I am very happy now we have very talented T-20 players to build up the team” said Malinga, who opted out of the Pakistan tour due to security reasons. He says that however, the Australian series is different from their wickets compared to that of Pakistan. “I think more important to maintain winning mentality from the Pakistan series,” said Malinga.
“In a T20 contest, we always look at taking a decision much quicker than in a fifty-over or a Test match. The one decision you take can either win or lose the match. Like your skills, the decision s that you take will decide the eventual result so what is important to us is like the players’ skills their intelligence – how a player thinks on the field in different situations. That’s why T-20 game we have to get quick decisions to successful results. In a team of 11, there should be at least seven intelligent players. For the World T20 we require intelligent cricketers to serve us,” said Malinga. We had that type of players those days and when we won the 2014 T-20 world cup in Dhaka our team strength was that type said Malinga. I think how to handle the game and how to thinking during the game is more important especially in this T-20 format.
I always said whoever would captain the T-20 side in 2020 we have to prepare good side to compete for the world cup. We already find a new player who has very good leadership qualities. Dasun Shanaka did it very good style to win the series. Now we have a very strong side and today our best T-20 16 players are going this Australian tour.
I wanted to remind very important message When I suggest new players for the T-20 format in 2013 most of the people blamed me and they criticised me. Some people said I was trying to overlook some senior players at that time. That time Dasun Shanaka, Shehan Jayasuriya got their international status in 2013 from T-20. I told my decision to bring newcomers six years before today after six years newcomers proved their talent and now all people highly appreciated them. So I am very happy I realized this situation six years before and today all of them proved that said Malinga
“Actually Anjelo Matthews is very useful players but he had some injuries and in and out for the team. But he can come to the side at any time. He has the ability to finish the game very well and don’t forget Asela Gunaratna also got injured presently out from the team.” added Malinga.
“Actually this Australian series we have many options for the openers and number three batting position and we are not finalized yet about that added Malinga.
We have a practice game on October 24 and we have a day or two for practices in the first seven days. After that more than practice what is important is getting the players’ mentality prepared – how they are going to face the three T20Is,” he said.
Sri Lanka play Australia on October 27 (Adelaide), October 30 (Brisbane) and November 1 (Melbourne).
Be the first to comment