Mickey Arthur, Sri Lanka head coach has asserted that his side won’t take the second-string Indian squad lightly in the upcoming three-match ODI and T20I series.
Sri Lanka is aware of the Indian team’s potential and the coach believes the Indian team is almost like an ‘IPL All-Stars XI’ comprising of many youngsters who did well in IPL 2020 and 2021 but are yet to debut for India.
Mickey Arthur: Indian Team Is Like An IPL All Stars XI
India’s tour of Sri Lanka kicks off with the first ODI on 18 July 2021 and will conclude with the third T20I on 29 July 2021. Mickey Arthur is looking at this limited-overs series as a wonderful opportunity to try out different combinations and offer game time to the youngsters.
Speaking to Sportstar in an interview, Mickey Arthur said: “We are very much in a transitional phase at the moment. We are trying out a lot of young players and trying out our best combinations.”
“We are under no illusion because we know this is a wonderful Indian team. The Indian team is amazing; they have got so many good cricketers – it is like an IPL All-Stars XI. They are an incredible bunch of players, and for us, it is very much about giving game time to young players, looking at possible combinations going forward,” he added.
Despite having a majority of the first-choice players in England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has managed to name a potent squad for the upcoming white-ball series against Sri Lanka. Many, in fact, are backing the Shikhar Dhawan-led side to defeat the Lankan Lions in the latter’s den. After all, Sri Lanka hasn’t been doing well in international cricket for the past few years.
Mickey Arthur: England Tour One Of The Toughest Tours
Sri Lanka had a forgettable tour of England recently where they were whitewashed in the T20Is and lost the three-match ODI series 2-0 with a match rained out. Mickey Arthur termed the tour an incredibly challenging one and added on the same breadth that things only got worse when the trio of Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Mendis, and Danushka Gunathilaka was sent home for breaching the bio-bubble. Mickey Arthur claimed it was one of the most strenuous tours he had ever been on as an international coach.
“It was incredibly challenging. We had gone down a route of trying to get a vision for the 2023 World Cup, and trying to give the young players some opportunities. But around that, you also need some experienced players.
“Then we lost our No. 1, 4, 5 in one go, when they decided to go out and walk around Durham. It was really tough for us and we did a lot of soul searching in England. It was one of the toughest tours I have had in my 12 years as international coach,” he concluded.
Mickey Arthur also said that Sri Lanka can’t be in a transition forever and wants the team to reach a point where the players can be trusted and backed.
India’s Predicted XI For SL ODIs: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Prithvi Shaw, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Chetan Sakariya/Navdeep Saini