Shamik Chakrabarty in Colombo
The tuk-tuk driver was frustrated. He followed the T20I series with interest but has now lost hope. Sri Lanka were in good positions in all three T20Is. They bungled bigtime. “Only good for the IPL and the LPL; no good for the country,” he let out his anger.
The ODI series began today at Premadasa Stadium here in Colombo, and yet again, the hosts were affected by a middle-order muddle. This has been happening repeatedly. The land of so many batting legends – from Roy Dias to Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, via Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya – seems to have stopped producing quality batsmen. Pathum Nissanka has talent and grit, but we would come to him later.
In the first T20I, Sri Lanka were 140/1 after 14 overs, chasing 214 for victory. They lost nine wickets for 30 runs to be bowled out for 170. In the second T20I, they suffered another middle-order collapse, losing seven wickets for 30 runs. In the third game, the hosts couldn’t score nine off the final two overs, bowled by two rank part-timers, Rinku Singh and Suryakumar Yadav.
In the first ODI on Friday, they moved at snail’s pace and slid to 142/6 in the 35th over. There’s no lack of effort or commitment for sure. But there’s a dearth of quality.
Jayasuriya is now the team’s interim coach, and he pointed out how the players have been having long sessions at the nets. “Kamindu Mendis batted for more than 600 balls during our training,” the former opener said at the pre-match press conference on Thursday. “Kusal Perera batted for over 700 balls, and that’s a lot of overs.”
It’s one thing to have longer nets sessions. Performing under pressure in games, against a world-class opponent like India, is a different thing altogether. “Yes, they need to tackle pressure better,” Jayasuriya agreed. “A lot of them have just started. They will improve over time.”
Jayasuriya, who still doesn’t know about his future, chose to be optimistic. But Sri Lankan cricket seems to have become a prisoner of negative vibes. “Their (players’) priorities probably have changed,” said a Sri Lanka Cricket insider on condition of anonymity. “A lot of them are happy to play in different T20 leagues rather than focusing on the longer format.”
Nissanka is an aberration, probably the only silver lining in the cloud. He went through hardship as a child. His father, Sunil Silva, was a groundsman at Kalutara Town Club and his mother was a flower-seller. The 26-year-old has an ODI double hundred and he also scored a century on his Test debut. He has been consistent in the ongoing white-ball series.
Nissanka scored a half-century (56 off 75 balls) today before getting out leg-before to Washington Sundar. He would be disappointed, for he got out at the wrong time. The majority of his partners fell prey to poor game awareness, something that Jayasuriya had mentioned yesterday.
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