Consistency- the key word

* Sri Lanka embarks on their NZ voyage

By Marlon Fernandopulle

A modest Mahela Jayawardene who was recently crowned as the ICC Captain of the year left the island last night together with his 15 member squad on a seven week tour to New Zealand, confident of putting up a better show after his team’s recent setback in India.

Mr. and Mrs, Mahela Jayawardena. Mahela will need a lot of moral support on their tour to New Zealand. The team took wing to Kiwi land last night. Pictures by Ranjith Perera

The 29 year old stylish right hander, who was thrust into the captaincy following the injury to Marvan Atapattu earlier this year, acknowledged that his team played below expectations during the champion’s trophy and is now eager to set the record staright. “We definitely made a few mistakes at the Champions trophy. It was mainly our batsman that let us down. Our batters got off to good starts but failed to finish it off for us now. There were also a few areas on the field where we made mistakes. We have now learnt from these mistakes and hopefully will not make the same mistakes again”.

Akalanka Ganegama gets a chance to prove himself.

Jayawardene is of the view that his team has been playing good cricket in the recent past and is eager to continue in this manner before the all important world cup in March-April next year. “We have had a fairly good run in the past. The boys have played well but it is the consistency of some of our batsmen that has been lacking. The New Zealand tour should give the boys another opportunity to perform and be consistent ahead of the World cup”.

Sri Lanka will play New Zealand in two test matches at Christchurch and Wellington and then follow it up with five one dayers. The two countries are also set to play two twenty-twenty games between the tests and one-dayers. With the world cup only a couple of months away it’s certain that Sri Lanka will lay more emphasis on the one dayers”. However skipper Mahela Jayawardene did not rule out the importance of the two test matches. “As a team the test matches are also important for us .We need to perform well at this level which may also help us gain greater confidence for the one dayers as the test matches are played before the ODI”.

The Sri Lankan contingent to New Zealand will see two new faces. Batsman Chamara Silva and medium pacer Akalanka Ganegama have been included in the test squad after their consistence performance for Sri Lanka A. With regular skipper Marvan Atapattu, opting out of the test matches Chamara Silva may be called in to fill in the void. However Silva will be left to fight out with another youngster Chamara Kapugedara for the former captain’s position.

As admitted by skipper Jayawardene the onus will once again be on the batsman. Senior players like Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tilakaratne Dilshan who will have to come out and make sizeable contributions with the bat if Sri Lanka is to compete with Steven Flemings team.

The conditions in New Zealand are not going to favour the batsman who will have to be more disciplined and extremely selective in their strokes in their efforts to counter the Kiwi medium attack. The cold and windy conditions in Kiwiland coupled with the swing and bounce of the wickets will also test the Lankan batsman. It will be a daunting task for the batsman but not something that is beyond their reach. In the past tours to New Zealand some of the Lankan batsman have stood tall and hence it’s going to be a testing time for the senior batsman to display their strengths and character in trying conditions in New Zealand.