Beaten comprehensively in the three Tests and five One-Day Internationals, Sri Lanka looks to salvage something out of a tour by India that has left them with more questions than answers when they play a one-off Twenty20 International at the R Premadasa Stadium today.
The match will conclude what has turned out be a highly successful tour of Sri Lanka for Virat Kohli and his Indian team who have played a brand of cricket that has left Sri Lanka high and dry unable to counteract the relentless manner in which the visitors have approached every game.
Today’s game won’t be any different to the previous ones as India will look to sign off on a winning note in a format they have been masters of having started a highly successful Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament a decade ago – one which has given international exposure to their lesser known cricketers and thereby benefitted Indian cricket immensely.
One of the key areas Sri Lanka needs to address is the batsmen to put sufficient runs on the board to give them a chance of competing.
“T20 is a very quick game where at the end of the day we need to score runs and put some runs on the board. That was our biggest issue in the ODIs, not just our bowlers we just couldn’t get 250 in a game,” said Sri Lanka cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha.
“We looked at the averages here batting first at R Premadasa Stadium the average total is around the 160-170 mark. It is the score to get on this ground but we haven’t seen the wicket yet,” he said.
“We will only see it now before the game. It has been covered the whole of today (Tuesday) and the ground staff cannot open it or do anything on it because of the rain. It’s very windy as well so it will covered till tomorrow morning and if it stops raining then we will have a look at it. When it’s kept covered Sri Lankan wickets will always do something.”
Gurusinha said that Sri Lanka was looking to salvage something out of the Indian tour by trying to win today’s game. “That’s why we have brought in two hard hitting allrounders – Dasun Shanaka and Seekkuge Prasanna.”
The former member of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup winning team believes T20 is one of the games where wrist spinners do well right around the world.
“We are thinking at it from that point of view, that’s why we have included leg-spinners Jeffrey Vandersay and Wanindu Hasaranga, although Hasaranga is more of a batting all-rounder,” said Gurusinha.
Vandersay and fast bowler Suranga Lakmal are returning to the national side after injuries and Gurusinha said, “We got fitness reports from our medical staff and everyone is 100 percent fit to play, after that only we selected the squad. In fact Lakmal actually came and bowled with us before the fifth ODI in the nets, he is fresh to go.”
Leg-spinner Vandersay has recovered from a fractured ring finger to his bowling hand and Lakmal from back spasms. The two teams have not met in a T20I since the Asia Cup in May last year. Of the 10 T20Is played between the two countries India has won 6 and Sri Lanka 4.
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