Focus on World Cup as Sri Lanka heads Down Under
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T20 skipper Lasith Malinga says next year’s T20 World Cup will be the focus when they take on Australia in a three-match T20 series starting next Sunday. Sri Lanka will leave the island today for the short series and hope they could carry on the momentum of beating world’s number one ranked Pakistan to the new series against one of the toughest of opponents in world cricket.“The conditions and wickets will be different what they played in Pakistan. So if we perform well in those conditions, then it will augur well for our preparations for the World Cup,” said skipper Malinga at Friday’s media briefing ahead of team’s departure to Australia. “ And if you perform well on this tour, there will be a good chance of those players making it to the World Cup as well.”’
Malinga–the leading wicket-taker in the shortest format also said that identifying in-form players as important as identifying a group of players capable of making those right decisions under crunch situations.
“You can win a match solely on one decision that a player makes,” he said. “So we’re looking for intelligent players capable of making those right decision at the right time to win games for us. We need around 11-12 players of this calibre in our squad, and that way we can always have about six to seven at the very least in a game, players capable of winning matches in key moments.”
Even though Malinga the bowler has a secured place in the national team up until the World Cup, he will have to come up with a strategy to win matches to own the captaincy up to the World Cup. Malinga has just one win out of seven games this year as captain.
“He is under pressure as well,” said chief selector Ashantha de Mel of Malinga’s captaincy. “He needs to prove that he is capable of leading the side and win matches.”
Dasun Shanaka who led the side in Pakistan has a hundred percent win ratio after Sri Lanka registered a convincing whitewash against the hosts.