Mahela joins squad as Sri Lanka look to move forward with confidence
Former captain Mahela Jayawardena joined the Sri Lanka T20 squad in Australia on Friday, as the team prepares to take up the challenge in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which begins from October 16. Jayawardena, who joined the side in the capacity of Consultant Coach, will mainly provide strategic planning while the coaching staff, headed by Englishman Chris Silverwood, continues to manage the side’s training and conditioning.“It’s still premature to say what’s on the list. I will observe the squad and their training programmes first,” Jayawardena told the Sunday Times hours prior to his departure to Australia.
Sri Lanka is drawn in Group ‘A’ in the qualifying rounds alongside Namibia, Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates. If they move ahead to the Super 12, which is an obvious fact, Sri Lanka will be one of the four teams to reach the main draw from eight teams that competes in the qualifying round. The other four teams slotted in the Group ‘B’ are Ireland, Scotland, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Sri Lanka will play the opening game on October 16 against Namibia, before taking on UAE on October 18. They will meet the Netherlands on October 20 before seeing their chances in joining alongside three other teams from the qualifying round to draw against teams that have already qualified – Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.
Sri Lanka had to go through the similar process in the previous ICC Men’s T20 World Cup held in the UAE last year, but with a younger set of cricketers they managed to impress during both stages. Jayawardena was instrumental in bolstering a rather inexperienced Sri Lankan side then where the Islanders won all three group stage matches in the qualifiers and further two out of five games in the Super 12 group games.
“First it’s a matter of observing how the players react to the conditions in Australia. Then comes the pitches. Anything further can be decided afterwards. For now it’s way too early to predict anything,” Jayawardena added.
Prior to the last T20 world stage outing, Sri Lanka had the luxury of acclimatising to the conditions of Middle East with two friendly encounters against Oman. Sri Lanka won both games by 19 runs and by 5 wickets. They faced two warm up games against Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea only to win both games by 4 wickets and by 39 runs respectively. Sri Lanka won all three group stage games in the qualifiers – against Namibia by 7 wickets, against Ireland by 70 runs and against Netherlands by 8 wickets – to reach the Super 12 with great confidence.
They beat Bangladesh by 5 wickets, before losing to Australia by 7 wickets, South Africa by 4 wickets and England by 26 runs, before recording a 20-run win against West Indies and bowing out with higher respect. Sri Lanka will face the same opponents in the qualifiers – Namibia and Netherlands – while UAE can be seen as a new challenge.
If they win all three games
Sri Lanka will play alongside Afghanistan, Australia, England and New Zealand and the runners-up from Group ‘B’ in Group I of the Super 12s. If they complete all three games with at least one loss, Sri Lanka will be guaranteed a spot in Group II alongside Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa and the team to top Group ‘B’.
“It’s about taking one step at a time and moving forward with confidence,” explained the master tactician, who already has an impressive track record as a coach.
After arriving in Australia, the Sri Lanka squad completed three days of training in Melbourne on Thursday. After a day of rest on Friday, they resumed training yesterday before joining the T20 World Cup officially on Monday. According to team sources, all members are in full capacity and have shown great promise as they face their first warm up game against Zimbabwe on Tuesday in Melbourne. They will play a second warm up game against Ireland on Thursday.
With the present development Sri Lanka has the potential of reaching the latter stage of the world stage T20 tournament, which winds up on November 13, notably after their recent heroics at the ACC Asia Cup 2022.
Sri Lanka lost only one game on their way to the final where they turned tables to beat Pakistan and claim the regional plum.