Sri Lanka’s one-day skipper Upul Tharanga admitted that his team had let their fans down by not performing to their potential during the five-match one-day international series against India and called for them to continue backing them despite the recent losses.
For the first time in their history Sri Lanka suffered the ignominy of a 5-0 whitewash at the hands of India in the ODI series that concluded at the R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday. This followed at the heels of a 3-0 drubbing in the three-match Test series against the same opposition.
Following a near capacity turnout of 21,000 at Pallekele for the third ODI where spectators vented their anger at the loss and pelted plastic bottles onto the field, the fourth and fifth ODIs at the 35,000 capacity R Premadasa Stadium was played in front of half empty stands.
“We have to admit that as a team we weren’t up to the mark. The Test series was a huge disappointment and then we failed in the ODIs as well. When we lose, the fans move away from us. They would like to see us winning,” said Tharanga at the post-match press conference.
“We all want to win games, but there are mistakes that happen. We saw that in the series. We need the backing of the fans. The nation has to back us. That is our biggest strength. We failed to do well as a team. We’ll try to do well from the next series onwards. We have a month’s break before the next ODIs and we need to rectify the mistakes and move forward.”
Explaining where his team erred during the series Tharanga said, “We committed too many mistakes. As a batting unit we failed to post decent totals. Even after five games we failed to post 250 runs even once. Feeling very disappointed with that. These batting displays are worrying. Even today we could have made about 270 or 275. We were well placed, but like in the last few games we collapsed.
“We lost seven wickets for 53 runs. That has been something that is happening frequently now. Throughout the series, our batsmen failed after getting starts. We have to be concentrating more on making big ones One of the top four batters need to make a century then only we can go and get something like 280 or 300. Most of our players have played less than 30 matches. That’s something that you gain with experience. Virat Kohli’s batting was a good example for us. We talk about these things. We need someone who is set to get a big one. But we failed to achieve that. In ODIs, if you fail in one department it is very difficult to compete.”
Tharanga cited the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah and Buvneshwar Kumar as the reasons for Sri Lanka’s batting debacles.
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jaspreet Bumrah bowled really well. They are very good white ball bowlers. They have played a lot of IPL matches. They are playing with the world’s best players. They have improved because of that. Slow balls and yorkers, their bowlers were very crafty,” said Tharanga.
“When you play against good teams, you cannot bowl four good balls and give away two bad balls. When you are playing against quality batsmen, you have to be consistent with your line and length. Akila Dananjaya tried to mix things up and we planned things as well. But we couldn’t execute them,” he said.
From an overall point Tharanga stated, “We lacked consistency. We didn’t bat well. We didn’t bowl well and we didn’t field well. We were outplayed in the series. Disappointed with the batting. India were very consistent. We failed to get big scores. The Indian top order was making plenty of runs.”
Tharanga spoke of the need to strengthen the lower order batting that India outshone Sri Lanka.
“When we are playing white ball cricket we should have eight or nine guys who can bat. We need to have a couple of all-rounders. There was little support from the tail. Moving forward that will be a vital thing we need the tail to fire and that didn’t happen in this series. We will need all-rounders.”
Tharanga said that he didn’t see any reason for him to step down as captain and said, “The next set of selectors will decide how we will move forward. The last two years we have not played well. Only this set of players can make us come out of it. We need to plan better. We need to identify what are the areas we can improve on.”
For the current 2017 calendar year Sri Lanka has won only four of the 21 ODIs they have played to-date and they are precariously ranked eighth in the ICC ODI standings awaiting the outcome of the West Indies-England five-match ODI series to see whether they will have to qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
“As a player and captain I feel very bad about it. If you take the last two years we were not up to the mark. We were not consistent,” said Tharanga. “In ODIs you have to read the game well. By reading the situation only you adjust to situations. We have to try and get out of it.”
Tharanga who returned to lead his country in the final ODI against India after missing out on the third and fourth through suspension for slow overrate said, “Not only the bowlers, the entire team is responsible. Bowlers need to quicken things up and the fielders need to back them up. Bowlers take some time and fielders take time. Not only the captain but the entire team should come under the spotlight.”
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