Sri Lanka should click and build up
The ICC World Cup was kick-started by a blistering performance from England, the pre-tournament favourites for most pundits. They are also in my top four for the tournament and showed why with a clever and clinical performance against South Africa.
South Africa are not a bad team, indeed they have some real match winners, but some of the teams in this World Cup are so strong that it’s going to be tough for any team that is not a complete all-around unit with top-class in-form players in all positions.
While my heart beats for Sri Lanka, and I hope things click and we build up some momentum with a collective effort, my predicted top four at the start are England, India, Australia and then either New Zealand or West Indies.
We also saw West Indies in action on Friday and they started with a captivating performance full of pace and aggression from their fast bowlers. Great to see “Dre” Russell back for them in ODI cricket; if he stays fully fit, he could light-up this World Cup with bat and ball.
Sri Lanka in their warm-up games have played average cricket. It’s not been too bad, but neither has it been especially good.
The batting has been steady, and it’s been good to see Dimuth (Karunaratne) scoring some runs. As the new captain with very little ODI cricket in the recent past, he needs to lead from the front with the bat and be tactically smart on the field.
There have also been some promising innings by Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera. Isuru Udana has looked assured and controlled while both Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal have been dangerous with the new ball.
The biggest headache I see is the batting position of Kusal Perera. I personally don’t think he should be batting No. 3 and prefer him playing a floater role like Jos Buttler for England, coming in around No. 5 depending on the match situation. The
Sri Lanka think-tank need to settle on that quickly as we can’t be chopping and changing things too much.
Another area for concern for us is the spin bowling. Jeewan Mendis has looked steady while Jeffrey Vandersay has not bowled anywhere near expectations. This is a worry because in ODI cricket right now the only way to stop rampaging batsmen is to take wickets and the spinners need to do that for us.
By the time you have read this, we will have already watched our first game against New Zealand. Their bowling is varied and potent while they also have a strong and destructive batting line-up. It was a tough match for us to start but then again there are no easy games this year.
If we were able to pull off a win early against New Zealand then we have a chance to build-up some confidence and momentum with our next games against Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
India are exceptionally strong and well-balanced. Their biggest advantage is the pace bowling unit led by Jasprit Bumrah, the best pace bowler in ODI cricket in the world right now. They are also blessed with the swing, genuine pace and all-round ability of Hardik Pandya.
Their batting is strong with great experience and, except for the first warm-up game, everyone including MS Dhoni and KL Rahul have contributed.
Opponents will definitely be trying to target Rohit Sharma with the ball nipping back into him and then against Virat (Kohli) I expect them to bowl a little wide of off-stump with two slips and a gully. He has shown a slight weakness in that channel, but then again he is such a brilliant player and intelligent batsmen that he might be able to adapt and thrive.
India’s spin bowling is also strong with Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Yadav and Ravi Jadeja. Yadav took some stick in the IPL but he has the ability to comeback strongly and really improve the penetration of their bowling.