Sri Lanka eye series win
Skipper Dasun Shanaka during Sri Lanka's training session
Sri Lanka had an unblemished record against Zimbabwe at home. The visitors had never defeated the home team, let alone won a trophy, until their 2017 series. Even at their worst, Sri Lanka had thrashed the lower-ranked team, such was their dominance on home soil.
But this changed for the first time when Zimbabwe registered a 3-2 win in the five match ODI series in 2017. It was a blow to Sri Lanka’s reputation and caused Angelo Mathews’ resignation from captaincy. What ensued was disaster with the team starting to struggle to make an impression on all fronts.
Five years later, the Zimbabweans are back in Sri Lanka and hosts will do anything to avoid a repeat debacle when the three-match ODI series starts this afternoon at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
Despite missing key players due to reasons varying from COVID-19 infection and poor fitness to personal reasons, Sri Lanka can still be optimistic about their chances in the series owing to improved performances in recent months.
It’s not that they hold an impressive record, but the manner in which they performed over the last six months in white-ball cricket gives rise of hopes. They beat South Africa 2-1 at home in their last ODI assignment. And their performances during the T20 World Cup, while they stopped short of the semis, earned them many supporters.
Batter Kusal Mendis was not a part of that series against South Africa, as he was serving a one-year ban from international cricket along with Danushka Gunathilaka and Niroshan Dickwella for breaching the bio-secure bubble in England. He was recalled to the side after SLC lifted the ban six months in.
Given his excellent performances during the Lanka Premier League (LPL) where he was adjudged player-of-the-tournament, the selectors had no hesitation to do so. Skipper Dasun Shanaka said the 26-year-old will open batting for Sri Lanka during the series with Pathum Nissanka.
“We all know how good a player he is,” Shanaka said of Mendis, who has scored two centuries and 17 half centuries in his 79-match ODI career.
“He was in great form during the LPL and his impact will be massive to the team.”
With only five specialist batters in the squad, Sri Lanka may be missing a trick. At the pre-match press conference, the skipper hedged.
“We got the best team available,” he said.
“As you know, we are missing a number of players due to various reasons and this is the best that is available.”
Mendis, Nissanka, Kamindu Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal, Charith Asalanka are the five batters in the side with Shanaka confirming he will occupy the No.6 slot in the batting order, followed by bowling all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne.
With Dushmantha Chameera ruled out of the first game to give him enough time to recover from COVID-19, Sri Lanka will hand the debut to Chamika Gunasekera to partner Nuwan Pradeep, should they decide to go with a combination of two fast bowlers and two spinners–the likely scenario.
Wanindu Hasaranga who recorded a hat-trick on debut, incidentally against Zimbabwe during the 2017 series is missing due to an injury and Maheesh Theekshana and Jeffrey Vandersay will be the two full-time spinners. With a bit of grass on the pitch, chances are high they will operate two specialist fast bowlers.
In the event they decide to strengthen the batting, they could recall Ramesh Mendis-a spin bowling all-rounder in place of a seamer. The series is part of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League tournament and Sri Lanka will look to collect all 30 points to jump to the third spot in the current points table.
With four wins and one no-result in 15 games,
Sri Lanka is currently in the sixth position with 42 points. Zimbabwe is at the bottom with 25 points based on two wins and a no-result in nine games. All matches will be played under lights at the Pallekele International Stadium.
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