We can make a difference with our A game: Kusal Perera

• First T20I against England today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s white ball skipper Kusal Perera said that the failing of his team has been the inability to carry the same batting form displayed at practice to the middle and it is something that they hope to achieve during the upcoming six-match series against England, which commences with the first T20I in Cardiff today.    

“Initially we must go and do what we are capable of without any fear. It is not so easy as saying it, we have to go to the middle and perform. We must give the players the full confidence and get them to play their A game, because we are playing the best T20I side in the world,” said Perera in a virtual media conference yesterday. “Someone will have to come up with a winning performance. All 11 players may not be able to bring their A game into play, but the player who comes up with his A game must know how to finish the match. If we do that, we can make a difference in this contest.

“The situation we are in today (Sri Lanka are ranked 8th) we have nothing to lose and a lot to gain whereas England (ranked 1st) have a lot to lose, and they will always have that pressure. What we are trying to do is to bring our A game into play when playing against good sides. The more you play against good teams only you gain the confidence. This current team we have the confidence that they can do something and turn things around. We want to do the right things and play a good match against England. Our performances will determine the results that we obtain.”

Perera who is leading his country for the first time in a T20I said the biggest challenge for them was getting acclimatised to the cold weather.

“There is a big change in the weather here. When we played in Bangladesh, we played under 40-degree temperatures, in Manchester the temperatures were between 12 and 13 degrees. Here in Cardiff, it is still much colder. Our main challenge is getting acclimatised to the cold weather. The 10 days we spent in Manchester we have got somewhat used to the weather,” said Perera.

“The Intra-squad matches we played were quite beneficial. Playing matches is better than practices because players understand what is required of them in the middle. The other factor is we can get an idea of what type of wickets to expect although it won’t be as similar to what we will get for the matches. Normally in England we get wickets with pace and bounce. We played most of our cricket on slow pitches at home and in Bangladesh against spin,” continued Perera.

“A lot of the players performed well and overall, we have a lot of plus points, especially with our batting unit to get adjusted to the wickets here. We are looking at playing 6 batsmen, 2 all-rounders and 3 specialist bowlers. I cannot tell you the batting order as we have not decided on the team as yet. But I agree with the coach that in the top order we need to give the batsmen the opportunity and responsibility instead of changing them constantly.

“Instead of keeping changing the batting order time and again we want them to bat in one position and focus on their game and score runs. That is what we are trying to do going forward.”

Perera said that uncapped all-rounder Dhananjaya Lakshan who suffered a leg injury has recovered and that he will be available for selection.