Siriwardena syndrome and the No 3 slot
Have you ever had the time and inclination to savour the subtle wit of the cartoon strip — the Wizard of Id?
Needless to say, my favourite character is Sir Rodney the Chicken-Hearted.
Generally, as a matter of fact, he is just called “Rodney”. He is the king’s chief knight and head of the hapless royal army. He is supposed to be a tall, lanky man of dopey intelligence.
He wears a bulletproof vest and carries a spear. He is hopeless as a warrior, and his troops are just as incompetent.
When I glanced through the Sri Lanka Test squad bound for New Zealand, I just could not but help think of “Sir Rodney”.
Playing overseas is a challenge for any cricketer, and it is seldom that one comes across batsmen whose overseas batting averages are better than their average at home; simply, it is a tough job.
At the same time, playing in the cool climes of New Zealand is a tough proposition. In most cases the wagon breaks down under pressure.
I cannot speak of a Sri Lankan batsman who really has thrived playing under such hostile conditions.
Then, taking on the New Zealand team for a full tour is a challenge in itself; therefore, taking a set of greenhorns could sometimes be tantamount to suicide.
During the run up to the selection, there was speculation about certain changes and the challenge at hand was not easy by any stretch of imagination.
But, when the final lineup was made public, we just lost our smiles and a tinge of irony took its place.
It’s true that, in the post-Sanga era, things have not been easy and the woes have been compounded by the fact that, some of the batsmen who have been given a lot of responsibility have let themselves down with indifferent batting form.
But, isn’t it true – as a stubborn reality of cricket, this often happens. A slump in form is a common occurrence.
Almost during the same time last year, the Lankans went through the experience of facing a rejuvenated pack of Kiwis. Even though they came with the cushioning of the experience of Kumar Sangakkara, the result was that the Lankans lost both Test matches rather meekly.
The defeat came in spite of a double hundred by Sangakkara in the second match and a courageous 150 by Dimuth Karunaratne in the first.
In the lineup Karunaratne is still padding up, but at the other end dogged Kaushal Silva is pitilessly dumped.
Kaushal, a batsman who has played 24 Tests with an average of over 34 runs, with two centuries and nine half-centuries to his credit, suddenly finds himself out of a job.
In his last tour of New Zealand, Silva scored 50 and 33 in the two Test matches, while Karunaratne fired a 152 in the second innings of the second test. At that time, the two batsmen were shaping up well as a pair.
Having dropped Silva, whom do we have at the top of the order? It is Kusal Mendis, a batsman still finding his feet in the international arena.
Then, at number 3, there is another newcomer in Udara Jayasundera who is yet to play his first Test match. Yes, during the last ‘A’ tour a month earlier, he scored a 52 and a 99 against the Kiwis in New Zealand.Yet, this is no barometer to judge his strength at international level. All this seriously means the Lankan top order is wobbly.
The million dollar question is how this equation became a reality. Now, from the top three, only Dimuth Karunaratne is left in contention. Both Kaushal (24 Tests) and Lahiru Thirimanne (23 Tests) – together who count for 47 Test matches — are dropped.
At a time when the Lankans are struggling for experience, the count of 47 Test matches could be significantly sizable. Yet, the poor form of vice captain Lahiru Thirimanne had also become a disconcerting factor. So, as I predicted, a change was on the cards.
But, dropping both Kaushal and Thirimanne could be an act of hara-kiri. Surely, even though there would have been a certain number of ‘Sir Rodneys’ within the selection panel, the top management should have known better.
As far as we know, skipper Angelo Mathews and company had expressed their concerns about the developments.
There is another hilarious situation at hand. Now they call it the Siriwardena obsession. While in obscurity for a while, suddenly, the selectors happen to stumble across the talents of Milinda Siriwardena, and that move became an instant success.
Now we hear the selectors are infatuated with this success and are trying to apply this formula at every turn. We feel this is where the selectors have gone wrong. In cricket, it does not always happen that way.
Including Kusal Mendis and Udara Jayasundera at the top of the order, especially in an intense Test series like the one we are embarking on in a few days, what assurances could the selectors give, that the two replacements would do better than the ones they left out?
What sort of batting background do they have to cushion that cockiness? Under these circumstances, there is a huge likelihood that the Lankans would face a situation where we would have a scorecard that reads “10 for 2”.
This means the Lankans are exposing their best batsman Mathews very early. This also means that Dinesh Chandimal who bats at number 4 would also be under tremendous pressure.
Another wicket or two in the melee and the whole match would be doomed.
The only redeeming factor would be to have Kusal Janith Perera batting in the top order. Here is a lad who has the very same X-factor akin to Anura Ranasinghe, Duleep Mendis, Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya. Kusal Janith too has eye-ball coordination similar to these past greats.
However, the drawback is that Kusal Janith Perera is eager to continue as a wicketkeeper, and that could be an impediment for him to bat in the top order. However, in Sri Lanka every other top batsman is also a regular wicketkeeper.
Making of a top order batsman takes a huge amount of tinkering. For instance, the new Australian recruit Joe Burns has over 4,000 runs including nine centuries and 25 fifties in first class cricket, with an average of over 40 runs, prior to his first Test match. And now he has a century and three fifties in four Test matches.
Remember, Milinda Siriwardena too, had a long drawn first class career prior to his baptism in the big time.