Bitter blow for Sri Lanka: Pace ace Chameera ruled out of T20 WC

Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka has more than his share of problems to grapple with after Dushmantha Chameera was ruled out of the T20 World Cup

Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from Australia Former champions Sri Lanka struggling hard to qualify for the T20 World Cup Super12s suffered a bitter blow when their pace ace Dushmantha Chameera was ruled out of the tournament with a grade two tear in his left calf sustained during the first-round group match against UAE on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka bounced back superbly from their defeat in the first match to Namibia to thrash UAE by 79 runs to put their T20 World Cup campaign back on track. Chameera gave Sri Lanka the start they needed to spring back by capturing the first three UAE wickets inside the first power play to have them reeling at 21-4, a position from which they never recovered and were bowled out for 73. Chameera was into his fourth and final over when he limped off the field after bowling five deliveries. The over was completed by captain Dasun Shanaka.

Sri Lanka in fact have been grappling with injuries with frontline left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka being the first casualty being ruled out of the tournament after suffering a quadriceps tear even before the first round had got off the ground. Binura Fernando was named as his replacement and is likely to play today along with Lahiru Kumara, the other quick in the line-up.

Pramod Madushan is set to miss today’s crucial game against Netherlands with a hamstring complaint, but is expected to recover for the upcoming matches.

Sri Lanka Cricket has named Kasun Rajitha as the replacement for Chameera subject to the approval of the ICC Technical Committee. There is also a possibility of a third seamer Asitha Fernando joining the Sri Lanka squad due to injury concerns within the team.

A third player Danushka Gunathilaka also suffered a hamstring problem but according to Shanaka, “he will be fine” and be in today’s playing eleven.

Sri Lanka must beat the Netherlands quite convincingly to have a chance of qualifying for the Super12s. Netherlands with two wins are heading Group A with four points but their net run rate is the lowest amongst the three top contenders for the top two positions in the group Namibia and Sri Lanka. Namibia following their loss to Netherlands after starting off with a stunning win against Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka, have one slight advantage over their other two rivals because they play their final first round match against UAE, after the Sri Lanka-Netherlands game, which gives them an idea of what they need to do to qualify.

“Coming into this series, we knew what exactly to expect. Rather than playing well-known countries, it is somewhat different playing against these nations because we don’t know what really comes at us,” said Shanaka. “Normally when we play against the Test playing nations, we know the bowlers and the combinations they play. There are both advantages and disadvantages when we play these kinds of rounds.”

Shanaka has been constantly reminded of that being the Asia Cup, the fear of not making it to the competition proper is always there.

“Asia Cup champions is history, it’s just a title for us. There is no pressure at all. We just need to concentrate on our own performances and what we need to do to make sure that we get into that second round after the next game. We know our strength. The first game we didn’t execute in that match, so we got beaten by Namibia. But we are a far better team than the team that performed in the first game.”

Netherlands coach Ryan Cook said that his team is up for the challenge of taking on Sri Lanka.

“I think it’ll be a very challenging match. Obviously, they’re a good team and are coming off some good form in the Asia Cup. The boys are up for it, but we know there will be a challenge there,” said Cook.

“The preparation from the start has been excellent. We’ve got a lot of information obviously on each team, and our preparation has been very long in comparison to what it was last year. The guys are really confident going into the game and very clear in what our plans need to be.

“In our coaching staff we’ve got a few guys who have played with (Wanindu) Hasaranga, and obviously we played against Sri Lanka last year. So, the guys are aware of the threat that they’ll face. We’ll obviously have our plans for them and try and execute that as well as we can on the day.”