Sri Lanka T20 squad to begin 4-day training camp in Kandy
Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad will travel to Kandy today to begin a four-day residential training camp on Monday at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in preparation for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia next month. The newly crowned Asia Cup champions will leave to Australia on Sunday (October 2), two weeks before their opening World Cup first round fixture against Namibia on October 16.
Sri Lanka will use the two-week period to acclimatise to the fast and bouncy conditions Down Under and will play Zimbabwe and Ireland on October 10 and 13 in their official warm-up fixtures before heading to the group stage games. The 2014 champions are among the eight teams that would eye to earn one of the four remaining spots available in the main draw and will play, Namibia, Netherlands and United Arab Emirates in their quest to qualify.
“We are heading early to Australia to give our players as much time as possible to get acclimatise to the conditions. We also have two warm up games and three qualifying games which I believe of great advantage heading into the main draw,” said chief selector Pramodya Wickremasinghe, who will join the squad as selector on tour.
Dasun Shanaka’s men go into the tournament high on confidence after their brilliant performance at the recent Asia Cup. Despite losing their opening game to Afghanistan meekly, Sri Lankans roared back magnificently winning their all remaining games to clinch their first major title in eight years.
However, the conditions in Australia are complete contrast to what they had in the UAE and getting acclimatize to conditions will be key. If Sri Lanka top Group ‘A’, their opponents will be Australia, New Zealand, England, Afghanistan and the runner-up from Group ‘B’ (West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland or Scotland).
If they failed to top Group A, Sri Lanka will join Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa and winner of Group ‘B’ in the main draw.
Meanwhile chief selector confirmed that both Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera have been passed fit by the physiotherapist. Both players missed the Asia Cup as they were recovering from injuries but was included in the World Cup mix subjected to them being passed fit. Kumara is recovering from a hamstring strain, while Chameera has been nursing an ankle injury.
At the 2021 T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka, though fared reasonably well, could not make to the semi-final, losing three of their
Super 12 games.