Whilst hailing the heroic exploits of our cricketers in sweeping the two-Test series 2-0 and creating history as the first Asian country to win a Test series in the rainbow nation, now it is upto the one-day team led by experienced campaigner Lasith Malinga to ride on that victory and secure a series win for Sri Lanka ahead of the upcoming World Cup.
The one-day series starting on March 3 is important for both teams. South Africa smarting under a shock Test series defeat at the hands of an underperforming Sri Lanka side will be wanting to badly recoup from that loss, whilst Sri Lanka’s one-day performances have not been as good as their Test side to say the least and needs a complete overhaul.
Sri Lanka’s form in white ball cricket has been so bad that they have not won a bilateral ODI series for the past three years. Their last win was beating Ireland 2-0 away in June 2016 which speaks of their low ranking at number eight for the past two years. They have been stuck in that position unable to make any progress because of some indifferent performances where they need to sort out their batting especially. The failure of the batsmen to put up competitive totals on the board has contributed largely to their defeats. In this age where T20 cricket has expanded the horizons of batsmanship to unimaginable heights scoring in the region of 300 plus is a must if a team wants to win. In the past 49 bilateral ODIs that Sri Lanka has figured in since beating Ireland they have passed the 300-run mark only on nine occasions, which clearly outlines where their problem lies.
Also, they have lost the art of taking wickets in the middle overs of an ODI that has resulted in the opposition capitalizing with wickets in hand to score totals well in excess of 300 which the Lankan batsmen have fallen far short of in their run chase.
While it is quite the norm in this country to shower praise on everybody connected with cricket the moment the national team starts to win, we should not get carried away too far with our win in South Africa. Consistency is the name of the game and Sri Lanka must continue to perform in this manner and extend this run further to be accepted as a competitive side as they were in the late nineties through till around the mid 2015 after which their downward slide began.
Various reasons can be attributed towards the Test win in South Africa. One being the audacity of the national selection committee headed by former Sri Lanka fast bowler Ashantha de Mel and comprising Brendon Kuruppu, Hemantha Wickremaratne and Chaminda Mendis to throw in a few new faces into the Test squad and even going to the extent of sacking regular Test captain Dinesh Chandimal and appointing Dimuth Karunaratne in his place for a tough tour of South Africa. The De Mel committee also brought in fresh legs into the Test side after Sports Minister Harin Fernando made a courageous move to remove head coach Chandika Hathurusingha as a selector. Whereas Hathurusingha who was calling all the shots as a selector kept on selecting preferred tried and tested players, the chief selector completely changed that scenario by giving opportunities to current form players in domestic cricket that saw batsman Oshada Fernando and left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya being selected for the Test series and both eventually coming up with match-winning performances. Embuldeniya took five wickets on his Test debut at Durban and Fernando scored his maiden Test fifty and figured in a match-winning 163-run stand with Kusal Mendis in Sri Lanka’s series clinching run chase at Port Elizabeth.
Karunaratne displayed true leadership qualities and brought the team together binding it and making the players believe in themselves to outwit the Proteas in what is seen as one of the biggest upsets in cricket history. He continues a select band of Sri Lanka captains who have come in as stand-in captains and won a Test series emulating the feats of retired Test bowler Rangana Herath and current fast bowler Suranga Lakmal.
Herath led Sri Lanka to a 2-0 Test win in Zimbabwe in 2016 when Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal were both injured, Lakmal took over the Sri Lanka Test captaincy for the third Test against West Indies in 2018 when Chandimal was handed a one-match ban for ball tampering and led the team to victory not only to draw the series one-all but also to become the first Asian team to win a Test match at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados. Following a further two-match ban on Chandimal for a spirit of cricket offence before the home Test series against South Africa Lakmal continued with the Test captaincy and led Sri Lanka to a comprehensive 2-0 win.
For the upcoming ODI series the selectors have included young prodigies like aggressive opener Avishka Fernando and ambidextrous all-rounder Kamindu Mendis, both with the potential to make it to the final World Cup 15 squad.
With a newly-elected cricket body in place one hopes that they will extend their fullest co-operation to the national selectors and the national team so that the upliftment of Sri Lanka cricket that has started in South Africa is continued towards regaining global recognition from which the team has fallen from in the last three years.
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