Lasith Malinga Will Not Take Retirement After T20 World Cup 2020

Sri Lanka’s bowling gem Lasith Malinga had already taken retirement from the longer formats. In March, the pacer opined that he might also not play the shortest format after the T20 World Cup 2020. Now, the player feels that he has the strength to continue his stint for the next two years.

Malinga, who heads the team in the shortest format, is the lethal bowler. He is the only bowler to have 100 T20 wickets for his team. The player retired from the ODI format in July 2019 and shifted his focus to the shortest format. The most hat-trick taker in international cricket, Lasith Malinga, opined that with his technique and skills he could continue his game in T20 for the next two years.

“T20 is four overs and I feel with my skill, I can manage T20 as a bowler. As a captain, because I’ve played so many T20s around the world that I feel I can manage that period for maybe another two years,” Malinga told ‘ESPNCricinfo’

Will Lasith Malinga lead the team in T20 World Cup 2020?

Lasith Malinga is the king of T20. He is the first bowler to have two hat-tricks in the T20I. His distinctive arm action and yorker bowling can destroy any kind of batting line-up. The player is the current captain of the Sri Lankan T20I team. However under his captaincy, the team has not good stats, Sri Lanka has won one, tied one, and lost eight in their last 10 T20 Internationals. Malinga opines that he might lead the team in T20 World Cup but the final decision lies on the hand of team management.

“(Sri Lanka Cricket) said for the World Cup I have to be lead there but you never know in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Sri Lanka team is lacking consistency

Sri Lanka is currently facing a lack of skills in the players. The pacer opines the lack of consistency has cost the defeat to the team.

“Sri Lanka is lacking that skilful bowler, they lack those consistencies. We can’t get one year, one and a half years, all fixed, it might be that we need to get patience, maybe two or three years,” he said.

“Consistency is very important. I feel whoever is doing the next selection have to understand that (for) people (to learn), they have to be there. If he’s on the bench, nobody can learn,” he added.