Chief selector summons coaching staff for pow wow

ABU DHABI, Tuesday: Sri Lanka will be hoping for a change of fortunes when they take on Pakistan in the shortest format of the game T20 International in three matches starting Thursday at Abu Dhabi.

Sri Lanka will play the first two matches back to back before they leave on Saturday for the third and final match which is scheduled to be played at Lahore on Sunday.

“The most important thing is though the T20 squad that has been selected for the series is an inexperienced one they have been very energetic and want to prove something, which is a very good thing,” said cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha.

The T20 squad of 16 held practice under new captain Thisara Perera at the Dubai International Stadium yesterday and was due to travel last night to Abu Dhabi.

Gurusinha said that ten players from the ODI side who did not go to Lahore and was not selected for the T20I series were due to leave for Colombo last night.

Gurusinha also stated that the support staff would stay back for the T20I matches although head coach Nic Pothas and physiotherapist Nirmalan Dhanabalasingham have indicated that they were not travelling to Lahore.

“I have not heard anything so far from Sri Lanka Cricket so far so the support staff will stay with the team,” said Gurusinha.

Following two disastrous back to back 5-0 series defeats at the hands of India and Pakistan, Gurusinha said that chief selector Graeme Labrooy has summoned a meeting with the team’s coaching staff to find out where thing have gone wrong for the team in one-day fifty overs cricket where the batsmen have totally let the side down on both occasions.

The Lankan team will be in Lahore only for 24 hours and they are due to return to Colombo on Monday.

“We really need to sit down and get back to the drawing board and find out where it has all gone wrong. The batsmen have been repeating the same mistakes over and over again in the series. You have to give credit to Pakistan the way they bowled but 103 was not a score to get on that batting wicket in Sharjah,” said Gurusinha.

“We dropped (Niroshan) Dickwella down the order because he can play spin very well and it was an area where we were losing wickets in the middle regularly but he was already in the centre by the third over, so the plan didn’t work,” he said.