{"id":41777,"date":"2015-02-24T03:41:07","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T10:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41777"},"modified":"2015-02-24T03:41:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T10:41:07","slug":"get-the-team-right-to-avoid-early-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/24\/get-the-team-right-to-avoid-early-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Get the team right to avoid early exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ananda<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Behaviour of the captain and the selectors in choosing the appropriate players which suit the conditions \u00a0is alarming. We have been in New Zealand for a long time now and still could not get the team straightened up after many matches with ample opportunity to learn and adjust. This is the time to accept the fact that that the selectors, which includes (the preference of\u00a0) the captain,\u00a0 have been dead wrong and stubborn.<\/p>\n

Taking just one match, for example, the practice match against Zimbabwe\u00a0 will be sufficient. Whilst Zimbabwe managed to get 7 Sri Lankan wickets, we managed only 3 wickets. This proves all the bowlers used in that match, including Malinga, Kulasekara, Mendis, Herath, Perera, Lakmal , Mathews and Dilshan were simply ineffective. This means we must have introduced at least ONE more penetrative bowler. But the selectors were so stubborn to accept this and used bowlers from the same lot for the next two matches. Results were embarrassing, if not disgusting. Bowlers including Malinga\u00a0 were hammered by New Zealand and we almost lost to Afghanistan, even though poor batting played good part of it. We could have got Afghans out below 150 ( Bangladesh got them out for 162) if we used the correct bowling unit. Our bowlers (with the exception of Lakmal) were simply not a threat at all to Afghan batsmen. Therefore this match results should not be taken as a weakness of the batting unit alone.<\/p>\n

Next match, with Bangladesh ( who have already earned a point against Australia)\u00a0 will be crucial. It will be played in Melbourne and we should make corrections to our fast\u00a0 bowling unit. We have a bowling unit much weaker than Bangladesh who the three good fast bowlers who can bowl around 140 kPh and those who can bowl good bouncers. Malinga\u2019s yokers have disappeared, his speed has dropped a good 10 km\/h and his bouncer is too short and too slow. Kulasekara is completely useless and shall be sent home. <\/strong>Perera\u00a0 and Mathews should not\u00a0 be depended upon as frontline fast bowlers and this leaves us with young Dushmantha Chameera, who played well against strong New Zealand team (in the\u00a0 last match of the NZ-Lanka series), threatening all batsmen and getting Tailor out by beating him. Dushmatha together with Lakmal , who bowled satisfactorily in the last two matches will certainly make the bowling unit stronger under Melbourne pitch conditions.<\/p>\n

Another weakness is the captaincy, which instructs fast bowlers to bowl yorkers at far outside off stump but ending up bowling easy\u00a0 full tosses to the bat. This tactic worked in the last T20 world cup but should not be attempted again. Instead, the bowlers shall be given more freedom guidance and support. Once the effective bowlers have been identified while using them, they should be given more overs than those who are more experienced but getting hammered.<\/p>\n

Mendis is injured and Upul Tharanga is on the way to Melbourne. This is somewhat a blessing in disguise. Australian pitches need good three frontline fast bowlers and it justifies playing Dushmantha. However, it brings some weakness to batting department as Upul Tharanga may not play in this match. Nevertheless, with most experienced batting line up among all teams, we should manage to register a win.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ananda Behaviour of the captain and the selectors in choosing the appropriate players which suit the conditions \u00a0is alarming. We have been in New Zealand for a long time now and still could not get the team straightened up after many matches with ample opportunity to learn and adjust. This is the time to accept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}