Thilan Samaraweera Appointed Sri Lankan Batting Coach
May 29, 2023 at 3:34 PM
Sri Lanka has had a dismal run recently in the limited-overs format. They have lost 14 back-to-back limited over matches, and their batting has failed miserably in most of their matches. The Sri Lankan team has been on a decline since the retirement of their batting greats Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan. They have failed to have some solidity in their batting line up.
To regain the lost dominance in international cricket, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board has appointed their former cricketer and batsmen Thilan Samaraweera as their batting coach till the 2019 cricket World Cup. Samaraweera played 80 Test matches for Sri Lanka and scored over 5000 runs at an average of 48. Samaraweera started his career as an off-spinner but soon realized that his chances of getting on the team are very minute because of the presence of the spinning wizard Muttiah Muralitharan in the team.
Samaraweera then concentrated on his batting and played some important knocks playing for the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team which got him into the senior side and he made his international debut in 2001.
The 40-year-old retired from international cricket in 2013 and then migrated to Australia where he had some notable coaching experience. He then took over the responsibility of coaching the Bangladeshi team and has helped them achieve reasonable success.
Samaraweera’s first assignment as Sri Lanka’s batting coach will be their tour of India where they play three Tests, three ODI’s and three T20I’s. He will arrive in Colombo on Monday eight days before their first Test at the iconic Indian venue of Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Samaraweera was one of the players in the Sri Lankan team who got injured in the terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2009. Samaraweera will be hoping to help his team attain the lost fame which he and his teammates achieved during their playing days.