Sunday Dec 14, 2025
Sunday Dec 14, 2025
Monday, 1 December 2025 00:36 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Unless Sri Lanka’s pathetic batting is addressed, it is not going to help them at all in the T20 World Cup
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Not for the first time this year have we seen Sri Lanka collapse from a strong position to hand to the opposition a T20I game on a platter.
What happened in the final of the T20 Tri-Series against Pakistan was unpardonable. One moment Sri Lanka were riding high at 81-1 at the halfway mark and looking towards setting Pakistan a challenging total to chase. But in the blink of an eye, they were all back in the dugout, dismissed for 114 without using up their entire quota of overs, losing eight wickets for 16 runs.
As long as Kamil Mishara and Kusal Mendis were in the middle, Sri Lanka’s hopes of getting to a decent total looked a possibility. But when Mendis fell for 14, bringing to an end a partnership of 64, the rest of the batting simply fell apart like a pack of cards. If not for Mishara’s half-century, Sri Lanka’s plight could have been even worse.
Prior to Saturday’s match, Sri Lanka had bounced back from the dead, so to say, by registering wins against Zimbabwe and Pakistan to earn the right to play in the final. A lot was expected from them, but the batting was simply not up to the task. This has been Sri Lanka’s Achilles’ heel for quite a long time and unless it is addressed properly, this type of batting is not going to help them at all during the T20 World Cup in spite of the fact that they will be playing all their group matches at home.
To say the least, the batsmen have been unfair on the bowlers by not putting up competitive totals on the board. There have been days when the batsmen have delivered and, on such occasions, Sri Lanka have more or less won, but the lack of consistency is the worrying factor.
Most of it is down to cricket sense. Not playing according to the situation and not thinking on their feet have been the bane of our T20I batting. After playing so much of cricket, if the batsmen are unable to do that, there is no point having such players in the team.
The pitch no doubt was not one that should have been given for a final. It offered a lot of turn for the spinners, but in the circumstances, Kamil Mishara batted brilliantly. The Pakistani spinners exploited it to the full. But after losing a couple of wickets, our batsmen, who have been reminded several times, should have adjusted the total according to the situation. But instead, they thought they could still get to 180-190 and went for the big shots and played into Pakistan’s hands.
It all boiled down to lack of cricket sense. If Sri Lanka had got to the 135 or 140 mark, they could easily have won because even the Pakistan batsmen struggled on that surface. They knew the wicket was bad and they took singles and twos and did not go for anything big, unless it was a rank bad ball.
The biggest joke is we are playing seven batters and are still unable to get a decent total on the board. Floating batsmen and trying to get a left-hand/right-hand combination going in the middle is not going to work. The batsman must be given a permanent batting slot to be comfortable with.
The criterion in T20I cricket is if you really want to win a World Cup, you’ve got to be a world-class fielding side. If a player cannot field – he can be the best bowler or the best batsman – but he has no place in the team. We have bowlers and batsmen who cannot field at all. Players like Nuwan Thushara, Kusal Perera, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa are liabilities on the field.
Perera and Rajapaksa, who are both in their mid-thirties, have been tried and tested and are still being persisted with despite the fact that their presence in the team is not winning matches. For too long, the selectors have been retaining these senior players on the assumption that the team needs experience. If that is the case, Sri Lanka should be winning matches with them, not losing.
It is high time the selectors took some bold decisions and discarded them for fresh legs like Kamil Mishara, Pavan Rathnayake, and Janith Liyanage and give these players a decent run in T20Is.
For the rest of 2025, Sri Lanka’s international matches are done and dusted. They have only a three-match T20I series against Pakistan and a similar series plus a three-match ODI series against England starting in January before they go into the T20 World Cup.
Sri Lanka should have started playing youngsters and grooming them for the T20 World Cup a year ago. By now, the players would have got the experience. Yet, it’s better to go into the T20 World Cup with a young team than losing with an experienced lot that has not served any purpose at all.
