Vaas heaps praise on pace and swing of Chameera
After Dushmantha Chameera claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in ODIs to lift Sri Lanka to a morale-boosting victory ahead of a tough assignment in England, the team’s bowling coach Chaminda Vaas heaped praise on the right-arm paceman’s ability to generate pace and swing at the same time.
Chaminda Vaas with one of his boys
Chameera, 29, was simply the stand-out performer in the series having picked up nine wickets in the three-match series, including his career-best performance in the final game.
Having lost the first two games and conceding their first ever series defeat to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka needed something special to avoid a whitewash.
After Kusal Perera’s 120 pushed Sri Lanka to a formidable total of 286 for 8, Chameera’s three early strikes rocked Bangladesh. He later returned to take out two lower-order wickets to complete his five-for.
Such was his impact that when he removed Bangladesh opener Mohammad Naim with his first ball, he had taken a wicket in his first over in all three ODIs of this series.
“Not many bowlers can do that,” said Vaas, the pioneer of pace and swing bowling in Sri Lanka. “He bowls quick and at the same time swings the ball. He does this consistently.”
Vaas, arguably the best seamer Sri Lanka has ever produced with 399 ODI wickets and 355 Test wickets, is currently overlooking the fast bowlers in the national team.
Vaas credited Dushmantha Chameera for spearheading Sri Lanka to a morale-boosting win in Bangladesh ahead of the English tour
“He has shown the world what he is capable of. We need to look after him and the rest of the fast bowlers we have in order to get them to perform well consistently for a longer period. Chameera started this in the West Indies and he has been brilliant since then,” Vaas said.
Vaas also commented on Chameera’s ability to read match situations well and bowl accordingly.
“He reads the game very well. He knows exactly when to take wickets and when he has to bowl dot bowls to insert pressure on the batsmen. This is really important in a match,” he explained.
Chameera who made his international debut against New Zealand in 2015 has featured in only 28 ODI matches largely due to injuries he has been through. In 2016, he was sidelined following a stress fracture on his lower back that saw him being sidelined for months and then had often suffered leg injuries.
“He has been working with Darshana Gamage after the injuries and if he can maintain his fitness and be injury free, he will perform well”.
Vaas is also impressed with the rest of the fast bowlers but said they need to work hard on their fitness and master the art of handling match situations to become better bowlers.
“I am really impressed with them. Guys like Chamika (Karunaratne), Binura (Fernando), Asitha (Fernando), Shiran (Fernando) and Vishwa (Fernand) are really working hard and we have a good crop of players who can win matches for Sri Lanka. We also have Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara,” he added.
The Sri Lanka team is due to arrive today and will prepare for the England tour which include three ODIs and as many T20Is.