Sri Lanka goes back to former practice of appointing vice-captain

Dasun Shanaka (right) has been appointed T20I vice-captain to Charith Asalanka 

• Shanaka named as Asalanka’s deputy for T20Is

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

For some time Sri Lanka did away with appointing a vice-captain for the national cricket team, and the captain whenever he had to go off the field handed over the responsibility to a senior player. But for the upcoming tour to Pakistan, Sri Lanka has gone back to the practice of appointing a vice-captain by naming former white ball skipper Dasun Shanaka as deputy to Charith Asalanka for the Pakistan T20I Tri-series that also involves Zimbabwe.

Prior to the T20I Tri-Series which will take place from 17-29 November in Rawalpindi and Lahore, Sri Lanka is due to play a three-match ODI series against Pakistan on 11, 13 and 15 November at Rawalpindi. A squad of 16 players for the ODI series and T20I Tri-Series has been selected and sent to the Sports Minister for ratification.

“We are of the view that with the T20 World Cup around the corner it will be handy for Charith to have a person like Dasun Shanaka as vice-captain when making decisions,” said chairman of selectors Upul Tharanga. “It will give Charith some added confidence to have a vice captain. It’s not that we want to put any pressure on Charith on his captaincy but to assist him.”

Sri Lanka’s build up towards the ICC T20 World Cup in February-March is continuing with the squad of around 20 odd players earnestly trying to iron out their faults in a number of practice sessions and matches that are being conducted at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota.

The recently concluded Asia Cup in the UAE exposed the frailties within the team in all three departments, more so in the batting and fielding and team composition.

The group games Sri Lanka looked unbeatable as they came through with a 100 percent record winning all three matches. However, it was the reverse when it came to the Super Fours where Sri Lanka lost three out of three, thus underlying their inconsistency in this format.

This has been an ongoing problem for Sri Lanka and it has to be rectified quickly well ahead of the T20 World Cup. In the batting the issue lies with the middle order who have not been able to maintain the momentum given by the top order batters. The main concern is rotation of strike and the ability to keep the scoreboard moving with singles and twos. Sri Lanka has batsmen with the skill to hit fours and also clear the boundary, but that cannot happen with every ball they face. The batsmen must know when to attack and when to play the ball on its merits and pick up the singles and twos when boundaries are hard to come by. 

That is not happening with our middle order batsmen and thereby the accumulation of dot balls which eventually leads to trying to hit each and every ball to the boundary and thereby their dismissals. What our batsmen lack is game awareness. The ability to think on their feet and adjust to the situation at hand. This is the sole responsibility of the batsmen in the middle. Unless Sri Lanka overcomes this lapse they will not be able to put up competitive totals and likewise chase them down.

Fielding is another area which Sri Lanka has of late been dropping crucial catches that has gone against them. It was glaringly exposed during the Asia Cup. The other factor is the inconsistency of the bowlers to bowl wicket to wicket six balls in an over. The moment they tend to bowl outside the stumps the batsmen takes the liberty to score runs as there is no danger of getting bowled or being ruled out lbw. These are basics which players of international standards should be well aware of.

The forthcoming tour to Pakistan will reveal whether the faults have been ironed out.    

To enable Sri Lanka fine tune their game SLC has hired the services of power hitting specialist Julian Wood as national batting coach for a period of one year, and wrist and finger spin specialist Dr. Rene Ferdinands for two years, to assist the team in their build up towards the T20 World Cup.

SLC Secretary Bandula Dissanayake said that these appointments were only temporary and did not affect the full-time appointments of the national batting and spin bowling coaches Thilina Kandamby and Piyal Wijetunge respectively.