Asanka Gurusinha, the former Sri Lankan top order batsmen, has been left utterly disappointed after the conclusion of his first assignment with the national team as the cricket manager. The home series against Bangladesh was anticipated to be a well – fought contest which eventually was to be won by Sri Lanka.
However, things unfolded in a contrasting manner as Bangladesh ended up levelling the Tests and ODIs the T20s series 1-1.
“It’s not ideal for us,” Gurusinha said. “We should have won all three series. It’s not good enough to say that we have drawn all three series, as we were playing at home. We expected to win the series.”
Bangladesh did more than enough to take home shared honours and dent Sri Lanka’s confident. The two match series began with Sri Lanka taking a lead. However, the tourists clawed back wonderfully in the 2nd Test to win the second and the final Test, which was also their 100th test, to end the series drawn. The three ODI series also ended up 1-1 after two games before the final match was washed by rains.
The T20 series was meant to be different but wasn’t as Sri Lanka yet again gave away the momentum after gaining an early lead with the win in the opening match. the final match of the tour was also lost.
Chasing 177, Sri Lanka, by the end of which they were 47 for 5. Four out of Sri Lanka’s top six batsmen failed to make it out of single figures – two were out for ducks. The batting failure gave Bangladesh a huge advantage and there was no recovery from there on as they bundled out for just 131, 45 runs short of the target.
“For me, the batting was very disappointing,” Gurusinha said. “It was nothing to do with the wicket, but something went wrong somewhere. It’s very difficult to give answers. This is one of the best wickets in the country. We need our top five batsmen to fire. If we don’t get runs there, it’s going to be a problem.”
Gurusinha said he and chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya were in agreement that only players who fielded well could be eligible for places in Sri Lanka’s squad for the Champions Trophy, which will be named on April 25. The provincial one-day tournament, which is set to begin this week, may serve as an audition for Champions Trophy spots.
“We have already put some plans for the players when it comes to fielding,” Gurusinha said. “The chief selector, the trainer and myself are looking at certain things. We believe if players are fitter, they will field, bat and bowl better. There was a clear message from the chief selector and myself: we are not going to select players simply because they have scored heavily in domestic cricket. They need to achieve certain standards in fielding, and fitness has to be at a certain standard as well.
“When you are playing three or four games at higher intensity level, that’s where players struggle. When the provincial tournament finishes, we will start training from 2nd of May. We have to select the Champions Trophy side by 25th of April. So from 2nd of May, we have time until 17th of May before we go, and we will have training sessions in which we’ll be specifically working on fielding.”
The only highlight of the final match was the hat-trick by Lasith Malinga. The right arm fast bowler was on the sidelines after injury. Gurusinha hoped Malinga would be fit enough to pick in the Champions Trophy squad.
“Malinga has taken so many hat-tricks and he is a legend – his knowledge of cricket is unbelievable. He is a top performer. He hasn’t played a lot of cricket in the last ten to 12 months and playing T20s and 50 overs are totally different. We will watch him closely at the IPL. He has got about 15 to 20 games if he plays all the games. The best thing is that he wants to go to England with us for the Champions Trophy. I am hoping he will do it, but as he has to bowl 10 overs and field 50 – that’s where he’s a little worried.”