What ails Sri Lanka in T20I cricket?

• Series loss to Bangladesh raises several questions in the batting

The recent three-match T20 International series that Sri Lanka played at home and lost 2-1 to Bangladesh clearly underlined the fact that the team was nowhere close to giving other top teams in the format a run for their money.

With the ICC T20 World Cup looming in a matter of seven months, Sri Lanka are still struggling to get their batting unit in order.

The way they performed against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka has certainly a lot of grey areas to improve on. Other than the batting, their fielding and catching have been rather not up to the mark that could give the bowlers confidence and win you matches.

What is lacking in the batting and fielding is consistency. One match they are brilliant in both areas and on the other rather ordinary. This inconsistency has resulted in Sri Lanka handing their first ever T20 International series loss to Bangladesh.

Since the last T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies in 2024, Sri Lanka has won only one of their five T20I series.

The problem that Sri Lanka face in their batting is in the middle and lower order. The No. 4 spot has yet to be filled properly so is the crucial No. 7 where they need a power hitter who can help them to put a competitive score on the board.

In the series against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka first tried out Avishka Fernando at 4, but he barely displayed the confidence for a batsman in that position and in the third and final T20I they recalled Dinesh Chandimal who returned to the T20I national side after a lapse of three years. He also couldn’t contribute much. So, the Number 4 slot remains unsolved.

As for the No. 7 position, two players were tried out in previous series Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Chamindu Wickramasinghe. Both failed to deliver. So, the selectors for the Bangladesh series had to fall back on the tested and tried duo of Dasun Shanaka at 6 and Chamika Karunaratne at 7. Shanaka managed to retain his place for the third game and showed that he could fit the role of power hitter, scoring 35* off 25 balls, 21 of those runs coming in the final over of the innings, but Karunaratne cut a sorry figure with the ball and bat and was left out.

Why Sri Lanka had to bank on them is that there is no young blood coming through from domestic cricket in this format, which is not a good sign. Sri Lanka has managed to form a strong bench for their Test and ODI teams which is the result of them performing well – they were in the running for a place in the final of the last two editions of the World Test Championship and since the 2023 Cricket World Cup have won seven of their last nine ODI series. This could be because of the frequent tours organised for the Sri Lanka ‘A’ and Emerging teams who play four-day matches as well as 50-over games. Could it be the lack of including T20 matches in the itinerary for these types of tours that has led to a shortfall?

The Lanka Premier League (LPL) has been set as the benchmark for selection for the national T20I side, but apart from Chamindu Wickramasinghe who has gone onto represent the country no young talent has really emerged.

One of Sri Lanka’s biggest problems is that they don’t have any power hitters in the team to provide that added impetus to the total in the death overs to their innings. The other issue is that if the openers don’t give a good start the middle and lower order fails to deliver. These are some of the important issues that Sri Lanka needs to address ahead of the T20 World Cup which they will be co-hosting with India in February-March 2026.

After the T20I series loss to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka’s white ball skipper Charith Asalanka pointed out: “If you take the other teams there are a lot of players with strike rates over 130 plus, we have only two or three. We should have players with strike rates over 130 from 1-7 in our line up in this format.”

Sri Lanka Cricket, knowing the gravity of the situation, has decided to obtain the services of power-hitting specialist Julian Wood from England to conduct a week-long training program aimed at enhancing the power-hitting skills of both the men’s and women’s national players. The program, which is scheduled to run from 30 July to 5 August, will see Wood working closely with the National Coaches to help players sharpen their hitting techniques and improve their overall power game.