Ford prefers Lankans to be the underdogs
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Smiling new kid - Kusal Mendis yesterday
By S.R. Pathiravithana
Suddenly there are some new kids on the block and a thousand questions are being asked. Now everyone wants to know as to who would be opening the batting. They are keen to find out if veteran Tillekeratne Dilshan would really be opening the inning with Danushka Gunatilleke and who would be batting at number 3 – is it Kusal Mendis or Kusal Janith Perera, as the young Lankans embark on their mission ODI against the Australian juggernaut at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, this afternoon.
Suddenly the whole nation is aware about the date with cricket. It was very evident when we witnessed a sizable gathering thronged at the main Premadasa gate in a bid to purchase tickets. However insiders feel that the wicket would be more sympathetic towards the slow turning stuff and there would be one real seamer in operation with skipper Mathews chipping in with four overs or so.
At the top most likely it would be Gunatilleke or Janith batting along with veteran Dilshan, with Kusal Mendis easing into his No 4 position. As usual the number 5-6 slots will be filled by the captain-vice captain combination of Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal the number seven slot may be handed over to Dhananjaya de Silva.
Coach Graeme Ford comes with a piece of advice to skipper Angelo Mathews prior to today's first ODI - Pix by Amila Gamage
The next four slots go to the bowlers, and the eighth place would be a tussle between Milinda Siriwardena and Thisara Perera and they will be followed by Dilruwan Perera — very likely — with either Nuwan Pradeep or Suranga Lakmal filling in the blanks. At the same time there is a likelihood of Seekuge Prasanna taking the final slot at the expense of a genuine seamer.
The selectors led by Sanath Jayasuriya also named young batting prospect Avishka Fernando, spinners Amila Aponso Lakshan Sandakan in the line up, but, in probabilities they would be used as future referance.
However Lankan coach Graeme Ford terms this as a learning curve and places the Australians in a stronger position describing, he prefers the Lankans be termed underdogs. He said “In the ODI format Australia is a very powerful side. They had two recent series against the West Indies and South Africa and they were very dominant in both these series. It’s going to be tough for us and we must remember that we are still in the process of rebuilding.
Acrobatic Dhananjaya
“It was nice in the Tests we jelled together as a unit quickly. We bonded together with the younger set of players very quickly and were playing for each other. It was very evident that we had built a strong team culture. This is something that we are going to make sure that we would build even in this ODI series. I think when you get a commitment of that nature things begin to happen. Hopefully it would begin to happen together with a few younger players peaking to the expected level, I am sure then we could give the very powerful line up of Australians some headaches.
As for me it is how we progress. Hopefully, we can play better cricket than we did in England where we lost and we must improve on that. There we had some bright moments too, but, there were several disciplines that we have to improve upon. If we could keep improving on those vulnerable points it would be helpful and we can have some happy moments in the future too”.
Kusal Perera
Meanwhile according AFP Australian Coach Lehmann said his side were building towards next year’s Champions Trophy in England, he acknowledged the need to produce some immediate results to lift morale. He said “You’re always looking ahead. We have got a pretty solid one-day side who have performed well over a long period of time. The Champions Trophy is the carrot, but at the end of the day we want to win a game in Sri Lanka for a start, so that’s probably prime importance for us, and to play well.”
Sri Lanka (From): Angelo Mathews (Capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Danushka Gunathilaka, Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Seekkuge Prasanna, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Thisara Perera, Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Avishka Fernando, Amila Aponso.
Australia (From): Steve Smith (Capt), David Warner, George Bailey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Shaun Marsh, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.