• England Lions series to be used for paucity of red ball cricket

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s lack of opportunities for their red ball cricketers to prepare for the impending two-Test tour of New Zealand in March has made England Lions’ current visit to the country vitally important towards picking players for the Test side.

Sri Lanka last played a Test series in July against Pakistan and since then there has been no red ball cricket at all until the arrival of England Lions and the commencement of the National Super League 4-day this month. To make matters worse several Test cricketers have been allowed to participate in the various T20 franchises currently taking place around the world, making them unavailable for red ball cricket which only further compounds Test selections.

For today’s first 4-day unofficial test against England Lions starting at the Galle International Cricket Stadium, Sri Lanka ‘A’ have named a squad of 12 players of which four are Test cricketers namely, opener Oshada Fernando, middle order bat and wicket-keeper Sadeera Samarawickrama, and left-arm spinners Lasith Embuldeniya and Dunith Wellalage. The rest of the squad comprises of Nishan Madushka, Nuwanidu Fernando, skipper Nipun Dananjaya, Sahan Arachchige, Lakshitha Manasinghe, Milan Ratnayake, Isitha Wijesundara and Amshi de Silva.  

“I see this match as a good opportunity for these players to let the selectors know that they are ready to play international cricket,” said Sri Lanka ‘A’ head coach Avishka Gunawardene. “If they can perform at this level, that gives a message that there is young talent out there and they are ready to go and play international cricket.”

“That’s the message I have given the boys. One, you need to put pressure on the selectors, and two, you need to put pressure on the guys who are playing at the top. Eventually, the standard will improve if we start putting pressure on the other level of cricketers. They know that they can’t relax. They know they need to keep performing because there is another bunch coming from behind.”

“For tomorrow’s game we have announced the 12, the only thing we need to look at is whether we are playing with three seamers or two depending on the Galle track,” said Gunawardene. “The wicket looks pretty good; it’s not going to be a typical Galle wicket which is going to spin from day one. I think it will play really well in the first couple of days and if there is anything for the spinners it will come on the third and fourth days.”

Speaking of the opposition, Gunawardene said: “The England Lions squad has four Test cricketers, it’s a pretty strong team. But our ‘A’ team, although it’s pretty young are a talented side. The oldest player would be Oshada who is still under 30. Apart from him, the rest are all under 25.”

The Test players in the England Lions squad are openers Alex Lees and Hameed Haseeb, and fast bowlers Ollie Robinson and Matt Fisher.

England Lions lost their only three-day warm-up game to a SLC Board XI in a high scoring affair where the home side chased down 309 in the fourth innings to win by four wickets.

“It’s nice to chase down 300 plus, the main plus factor in that game although it did not have first-class status was what we discussed playing with intent. The batters in the first and second innings maintained a run rate of four-and-a-half to five runs per over,” said Gunawardene. “Even if it was a practice game, what we havve always discussed is that we need to change the way we play, we need to play with intensity. That is one thing I will take out from that game. We have given enough freedom for the boys to go and express themselves and that’s exactly what they did.”

“Tomorrow’s game also there will be nothing different, but obviously this is a different lot. The only thing I don’t want them to do is to put themselves under pressure to perform, but just go out there and express themselves. Stick to the plans and do what you are capable of.”

Gunawardene stated that the selectors want to make a few changes for the second unofficial test (starting at Galle on 7 February), basically to give a game to some of the players whom they have in mind to take to New Zealand for the Test series.

“There are three ODIs in New Zealand but the selectors have not discussed how they want to go about it. Sri Lanka won’t have any other white ball games in Sri Lanka before they leave for New Zealand. 

“The NSL one-day starts only in the second week of March, by then the team would have already left. We still haven’t discussed how we want to go about it in the ODIs, but I am sure there will be at least two or three changes for the second unofficial test regardless of the outcome of the first,” Gunawardene said.

Sri Lanka ‘A’ last played an unofficial test series in June against Australia ‘A’ which they lost 2-0 at Hambantota.

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