Hashan bets on youth cricketers to come good over Pakistanis

By Dhammika Ratnaweera

Sri Lankas under 19 team head coach Hashan Tillakaratne said his team is ready to take on Pakistan under 19 team in their five ODI series which will commence today (26) at Mahinda Rajapaksha International Cricket Stadium Hambantota. This is a good opportunity to measure our players stand before the Asia Cup. Amidst the unexpected security situation in the country we must thank Sri Lanka Cricket for arranging this five one day match series at Hambantota.

We wanted to know where our players stand and what kind of areas they have to develop for their future. We beat Australia at the test match after 34 years this year and the team has got enormous improvement but they wanted to get much-needed practice. We had only five players who were in the last Asia Cup for this Pakistan series. Pakistan side also has five players with the previous Asia Cup experience. We never underestimate Pakistan team. We had a previous plan to play two four day matches but we had to go off the rails due to this security situation in the country. Hence, they will now play five one day matches in this series. Especially, SLC coordinates with Defence Ministry and adjust this match series at one venue at Hambantota grounds and it is more secure to play here at the moment added Tillekaratna, the dedication coach for youth players.

As a squad, we get a lot of practice and now we have an opportunity to get match-practice with this series. Nipun Dhananajaya is Sri Lanka’s under 19 captain while Kamil Mishara is the deputy. We have an idea to rest Dhananjaya on last two games and give the leadership to Kamil as the team captain. The team is well balanced with both batting and bowling. Chaminda Vaas who was the bowling coach has been appointed as emerging team coach. Former Sri Lankan paceman Ravindra Prushpakumara is doing his job while Upul Chandana is with the team for a long period as a fielding coach. I reckon we are quite strong at fielding with our players trying their best, said Hashan Tillekaratna. The youth players have to play provincial tournament and the West Indies tour after this Pakistan series before the world cup. Those are the good opportunities for their preparations. The Pakistan series was not in our original calendar but SLC did an excellent job to organise this series. We believe we need to get more matches  If we want more exposure before the world cup said Tillekaratna.

Few players of the under 19 squad got chance to play Premier League Tier A and B division matches last season and it was good to see that they performed well and got a lot of experience. After the last Australian series, all the players in the squad were, once again, back in the school team and played their inter-school matches as well as big matches. We saw a big improvement of the under 19 squad players at their school matches or in other words they proved their ability with more experience. It is really disappointing that we lost two four-day matches, however, we were lucky to get, at least, five one days.

My view is that young players have to play test matches first and once they have the potential to play tests, they can easily change their way to one day format. Particularly, young players should maintain good physical fitness from the beginning and we have to give all credit to Physiotherapist Dharshana Weerasinghe who is with the squad for quite a long period giving us his valuable service. We are focusing next under 19 world cup which will be held in South Africa early next year. These young players already are doing well to get exposure. ” I am sure that we will see these talent 3-4 players in the 2023 world cup in India” added Hashan Tillekaratna.

Sri Lanka – Pakistan under 19 cricket series