Sri Lanka begins their preparation to defend the Asian Title

Sri Lanka begin their Asia Cup preparations today at Sinhalese Sports Club ground with the team expected to regroup following the Lanka Premier League that concluded on Sunday.

Several players whose LPL campaign had ended early had been training individually at the High Performance Center at RPS and today will be the first team training session. There will be an inter-squad warm-up game on Thursday before the team leaves for Kandy on Sunday to prepare ahead of their opening game against Bangladesh on the 31st of August.

Sri Lanka have a demanding schedule. After their opening game at Pallekele, they have to travel to Lahore to play Afghanistan and then return home to face the second round.

The team management is waiting to hear from the medical staff about the fitness of Dushmantha Chameera and Wanindu Hasaranga. Both players were injured during the LPL and missed the tail-end of the competition.

The chances of both players being available for the start of the tournament is slim. The medical staff is unlikely to take any chances with the World Cup around the corner.

If the players are ruled out from the Asia Cup, Kasun Rajitha and Dushan Hemantha are expected to replace the injured duo.

The Asia Cup will be played in Pakistan and Sri Lanka with Lahore and Multan hosting the games in Pakistan while Pallekele and RPS hosting the remaining games.

India-Pakistan draw scheduled for 2nd September at Pallekele is the biggest game of the tournament. The two nuclear armed neighbours are likely to meet in the second round as well and possibly a third time in two weeks if they reach the 17th September finals.

India Pakistan and Nepal are pooled in one group while Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are in one group in the six-nation tournament.

Although ODIs in Sri Lanka generally start at 2:30 pm, the Asia Cup timing has been delayed by half an hour with 3pm starts.

This is Pakistan’s turn of hosting the Asia Cup, but Sri Lanka are hosting bulk of the games with India not willing to travel to Pakistan due to security concerns.