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Sri Lanka’s 17-member squad for ICC U-19 World Cup in West Indies
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Sri Lanka has decided to retain the same 17 players who took part in the recently concluded ACC U-19 Asia Cup in
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| Sri Lanka U-19 Head Coach Avishka Gunawardene |
UAE for the ICC U-19 World Cup which commences in the Caribbean on 14 January, despite the fact that their reserve wicketkeeper Sadeesh Jayawardena is recovering from an injury.
Jayawardena fractured his thumb during practices in Sharjah and did not feature in any of the five matches Sri Lanka played in the U-19 Asia Cup.
“We had a chat with the physio, and he said within about two weeks Sadeesha can start taping and rehabilitation and all that. We haven’t got visas for another wicket-keeper and that process will take another week or so at least,” said Sri Lanka Under-19 Head Coach Avishka Gunawardene.
“As far as I know he hasn’t done any kind of training in the last couple of weeks after we left, so we might as well take him. If we can get him 50%-60% ready because we start training on 15 January, which is two weeks from here. It’s a long process to get visas and get someone to the West Indies with five days’ quarantine. By the time the other wicket-keeper comes it might be three weeks.”
The Sri Lanka team were scheduled to leave for the West Indies last night.
Gunawardene said that the message in the dressing room after Sri Lanka lost the U-19 Asia Cup final to India was, “At the end of the day, it was a bad day for us. Having said that we have won 11 out of the last 14 outings so you are bound to get a bad day. We need to learn from this, take it out of your mind. We were runners-up of the Asia Cup, it’s done. The guys need to refresh their bodies and their minds and start again for the World Cup campaign.”
Explaining Sri Lanka’s nine-wicket defeat to India in the U-19 Asia Cup final, Gunawardene said, “We were playing in Sharjah and suddenly it’s like moving from Sharjah to Perth. The guys had to get adjusted within a day and these are Under-19 boys, they don’t have the capacity to adjust immediately. Against Pakistan their pace attack was much better than India’s. That wicket was also a green top and the ball was flying through. We knew against Pakistan if we could get about 160-170 on that track we had a chance, but we still did it after getting 147. The same thing with India, the conditions were alien to us. It was the first time these guys played at the Dubai International Stadium.”
“The only thing we could go by was the history of the scores. Generally, they don’t play day games there but day-nighters, which start at 3:00 p.m. Once we had a look at the wicket it had a nice cover of green grass, being a final and all, the guys said: ‘Let’s put a score on the board and defend’.
“It was a team decision, but I felt the guys were a little fatigued having played five games within a space of nine days and a very hard fought semi-final against Pakistan the previous day. We were travelling from Sharjah to Dubai which is an hour-and-half either way. It was a repeat the next day as well and the guys were a little fatigued. If you noticed, the game stopped for rain, and it took almost three hours to restart it.
“Basically, they were preparing the wicket with a couple of blow dryers and that would have taken whatever moisture there was on the surface. But then these are no excuses. India were very good, and our boys need to get a leaf out of those two batters (Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Shaik Rasheed).”
Sri Lanka’s problems in the semi-final and final was their top order, which failed to fire on both occasions and saw them put up meagre totals.
“Batting is not a big concern, but we need to adjust ourselves when we go for the World Cup. Obviously, we are playing against different opposition in different venues. If we want to be consistent, we have to adjust ourselves quickly.
“Both openers are stroke players. I want them to go out there and just express themselves without trying to survive. It is something that we’ve discussed even after the Asia Cup final. Everyone said the wicket had pace and bounce but if you look at the dismissals, I don’t think anyone got out caught in the slips,” disclosed Gunawardene.
Sri Lanka are drawn in a tough group – Group D along with three-times champions Australia, one-time champion and host country West Indies, and Scotland.
“West Indies are currently playing against South Africa, and they have played against England, but not much information is there about Australia. We don’t know what sort of opposition we are coming up against. Yes, tough two teams but we have the confidence. If our batting unit puts up a good show, we have the bowling to defend a good score,” said Gunawardene.
“It’s just that the batsmen need to get their act together and give the bowlers a good score. Having said all that, the semi-final and final were played on two green tops. You don’t get so much grass in Dubai, and we were surprised. The ball was flying around, and it felt like we were playing in Perth. We don’t know what the wickets are going to be like in the West Indies.
“My experience with West Indies pitches is that they are not green, it might have a little bit of pace but not as much bounce as we experienced in the last couple of games. If we want to win a big tournament like the World Cup the guys need to adjust themselves quickly to the conditions.”
Sri Lanka will have about 3-4 days to get settled and start training in West Indies conditions.
“It’s a long flight time of about 20 hours from Dubai to the West Indies and once we get there we have a 5-day in-room quarantine. It’s not easy to be inside a room for five days, we only come out on 8 January and then you start playing your practice games on 10 January against Ireland and on 12 January against Uganda,” said Gunawardene.
