‘A’ team cricketers gained rare experience playing in Australian conditions – Avishka

• “Scoring four centuries in two ‘tests’ is quite an achievement compared to eight since the 1980s”

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Avishka Gunawardene, the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team Head Coach, was quite enthusiastic about the tour to Australia his team undertook because it gave the 15 players the rare experience of playing under Australian conditions and against a strong opposition.

“The tour was all to do with experience. We don’t get too many tours to Australia. Playing in Australian conditions against a good side and playing long innings is something that we achieved on this tour,” said Gunawardene after Sri Lanka ‘A’ had completed a five-match tour.

“Australia are a competitive side—how they play, how they apply themselves, their fitness levels, running between the wickets—there’s a lot to learn. Their grounds are big, the boundaries are 80 yards, and there were lots of trees; it’s not like the fast outfields in Sri Lanka. The outfields are lush and heavy. The wickets were good and it was a good experience for all of them to play on these tracks.”

“Even for the bowlers to have patience to learn how to bowl on a good wicket. Australia had a pretty good batting side. It was very strong; they had about three or four national players. Against that quality of batting, it was a good opportunity for the bowlers. Of the 15 players we took, 13 were playing in Australia for the first time. They were new to Aussie conditions. That itself was a good experience for them. You don’t get opportunities to play on Australian wickets against a good Australian side every day.”

The two exceptions were Kamil Mishara and Pramod Madushan, who had toured Australia with the national team before.

“Since the 1980s, teams have toured Australia, and if you look at the history, there have been only eight centuries scored in red-ball cricket all those years on Australian soil,” said Gunawardene. “For these boys to score four centuries in two games, I think it’s quite an achievement. Also, since the 80s, teams have toured here but they have never won or drawn a series. Even if it is a draw on Australian soil, I think it’s quite a good achievement results-wise.”

One of the batting successes of the tour was top order batter Nuwanidu Fernando. He struck back-to-back centuries in both four-day unofficial Tests.

“Even before he got here, he was striking the ball well. These conditions were ideal for him. He is the tallest batsman we have in the side and on these wickets, the ball comes onto the bat nicely. There was even bounce and it suited his style of play. Having said that, scoring back-to-back hundreds in Australia, I don’t think any other player has done that. He also got an 80 in the ODI we won,” said Gunawardene.

Sonal Dinusha (in the first unofficial Test) and Pavan Rathnayake (in the second) were the other batsmen to score hundreds in the series.

Gunawardene said the team showed character, ability, and talent to come back from trailing by 214 runs in the first innings to draw the first ‘test.’

“When you are down and out and when you are 214 runs behind, it is very easy to go into a defensive mode or match saving mode, but instead of that, we put everything aside and we batted positively and ran between the wickets beautifully. It turned out to be a positive thing at the end of the day.”

With regard to the 2-1 loss in the three-match unofficial ODI series, Gunawardene said: “The first game, we got to Darwin and, with the time difference and the different conditions, it was tough on the players. We’ve just had two sessions in the side nets and straight away went into the first ODI. But it was nice to see them come back in the second and win. The third game, we fell short by about 40 runs, as a couple of wickets fell in the middle. But I am very happy with the bowlers, especially the seamers, they bowled well. All in all, it was a pretty good tour in terms of experience and especially the batters, scoring runs and getting used to conditions which are alien to most of them.”