By Leonard Ratnayake
Sri Lanka will start off their World Cup quest from tomorrow at Cardiff in Wales when they will play South Africa in the first warm-up match as all teams are preparing for the ICC’s biggest tournament in four years would see its first ball being bowled on 28th of May.
Coming afresh with a win against Scotland in a two-match ODI series, Sri Lanka will try out all their players in the two warm-up matches before the first match of the tournament which will be started for them really on Saturday when they take on tournament favourites New Zealand in Cardiff.
Chairman of Selection Committee Asantha de Mel, who will also be the selector on tour and the Team Manager for the ICC World Cup tournament said that the team is mentally prepared to face the biggest challenge of their cricketing career. “There is a good atmosphere in the team, everyone is hoping to play positive cricket in this tournament,” said De Mel.
De Mel, said that he will make use as much as 13 players for the two warm-up matches to try out to the maximum to blend the correct combination of XI for the tournament, although some of the key players will be rested. “We will keep Malinga to come out directly to the big tournament, he is our X-factor player and we don’t the others to get match-practice against his bowling during warm-up matches” said De Mel.
Kusal Janith Perera, who is still nursing an injury will be ready for the second warm-up game, while Milinda Siriwardene will be included in the middle order for the warm-up matches to see if he could get along with quick runs as a finisher.
Young Avishka Fernando is tipped to cement his place for the tournament, provided that he continued his form with the bat in the warm-up matches. “Avishka is a good bat that we can gamble with as he would be good against any bowling attack on his day” explained De Mel.
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