Saturday Feb 21, 2026
Saturday Feb 21, 2026
Thursday, 1 January 2026 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Chief cricket selector Pramodya Wickramasinghe (left) with Sri Lanka T20I Captain Dasun Shanaka
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
With the T20 World Cup barely six weeks away, Sri Lanka’s preparations have certainly intensified with the provisional squad of 25 players hard at practice to iron out the deficiencies that have prevented them from performing consistently in this format.
“During the T20I series against Pakistan we will be looking at two or three back up players in batting and bowling. Once we clear that, we will announce the final 15 players for the T20 World Cup. This squad will play in the 3-match T20I series against England,” said chief selector Pramodya Wickramasinghe.
“To prepare a strong reserve bench for the T20I squad, we are trying out a few players during the Pakistan series. From this series we will get an idea whom we should pick as back-ups who can replace any player in the 11.”
Sri Lanka’s lead up to the T20 World Cup is the two series against Pakistan and England this month. Pakistan plays 3 T20Is in Dambulla on 7, 9 and 11 February and England, 3 ODIs at the R Premadasa Cricket Stadium on 22, 24 and 27 January followed by 3 T20Is at Pallekele on 30 January, 1 and 3 February. Sri Lanka’s first match of the T20 World Cup is against Ireland at the R Premadasa Cricket Stadium on 8 February.
Explaining Sri Lanka’s slump in T20I cricket where they have been idling at number 8 in the ICC rankings for several years Wickramasinghe said, “If you take each position in our team, batting or bowling, compared to international demands, we are lagging far behind. What we need is to prepare the players to get to that level. That is the responsibility of the coaches and the HPC (High Performance Centre). Basically what we have to do is to elevate the player from his current status to a position to what is required for him to compete with other top level countries. The problem is that it is not happening at the moment.”
“I am in the process of preparing a guideline which will be transparent so that anyone will know how it is being done, the players as well as the coaches. I think to a certain extent this problem can be addressed. We will implement it only after the T20 World Cup.”
“The program has to start from school level. If you work out each position, by the time the player comes to the national team he will have achieved what is demanded at international level. From the selection side we are preparing a separate guideline for it. We are giving certain requirements so that the coaches at HPC will know how to prepare the player. If we meet these requirements we will be able to overcome the inadequacies.”
Wickramasinghe said that there is a psychological factor involved when the Sri Lanka team is compared with other top sides.
“If you take the main countries and compare the positions man to man our middle order is not up to the mark. These days we have been working on this issue and I think to some extent it has been addressed. Today in a practice match one side batted and scored over 200 and the other side chased it down which means there is a lot of improvement from what it was.”
“The problems in the middle overs in batting and bowling have also been addressed to a certain extent. In (Lasith) Malinga’s presence a lot of planning has been going on. If these plans work out we can go a long way.”
The recall of Dhananjaya de Silva into the T20I squad has somewhat come as a surprise to many. Sri Lanka’s Test captain has not played in a T20I match since the last T20 World Cup in June 2024.
“We have brought Dhananjaya into the squad and we have been watching him closely at practice matches. We are still in the stages of discussions,” said Wickramasinghe.
“If we play Dhananjaya he will bat at the top and he will have to bowl his quota of four overs, which to a certain extent will solve our fifth bowler problem when we play a 7-4 combination. We are looking at that sort of combination.”
