With a 3-0 thrashing by the Proteas at home in yesterday’s concluded T20I series, Sri Lanka are left with plenty of questions to answer with just over a month left for the beginning of the T20I World Cup.
In the ODIs against South Africa, Sri Lanka looked promising and gave a glimmer of hope to the fans that the lost mojo is somewhat back, with the 2-1 series win.
With the slower pace of the 50 over game, the players weren’t too hurried, they had time to rebuild when they lost early wickets or had a mini collapse and had time for an onslaught or resurrection from the tail-enders, like we saw from Dushmantha Chameera in the final ODI.
However when it comes to T20Is, Sri Lanka seemed to lack the expertise and the skill to master the fast paced game.
In all three games in the series, Sri Lanka’s batting failed miserably. So many players’ position in question with continuous poor scores. The worrying part for SL is that they have named the squad for the T20I Word Cup with the same set of players whom they are banking on to deliver. Except for Kusal Perera, who’s physically struggling post Covid, all other batsmen looked like they don’t have a clue on how to approach the shorter format of the game.
It seemed more and more like the squad has decent Test and ODI batsmen, but lacked genuine T20 batters, who can keep up with the pace of the game. Every time a batsman tried to show some intent, they did so with poor execution and failed miserably, which resulted in an ugly dismissal.
Sri Lanka’s middle order will be the major concern. It sure has plenty of quality with players like Bhanuka Rajapaksa, DDS, Chandimal and promising young talent Charith Asalanka expected to bat in the middle order. However, their poor execution and throwing the wickets away at crucial periods dented Sri Lanka’s innings in all three matches of the series. Additionally, the major question is if these set of batsmen are capable of stepping on the gas by going for the big hits when required.
With Captain Dasun Shanaka lined up at No. 6 and All-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga batting at No. 7, Sri Lanka’s lower middle order looks problematic, especially considering the fact that these two batsmen have had a horrid time with the bat in recent matches.
Chamika Karunaratne who batted mostly at number 8 showed he has the capability to fulfill the number 8 role. Team management will be reluctant to push him up the order, as they have a bad experience after pushing Hasaranga one position up the batting order. Since the promotion, Wanindu has been really poor with the bat.
With below par scores from the batting unit, the bowling unit also collapsed. In the 3rd T20I, Sri Lanka didn’t manage to take a single wicket to put any sort of pressure on the South Africans chasing 121 to win game and for a whitewash.
South Africa’s bowlers, especially the spinners were way more potent than Sri Lanka’s most talked about spin unit headed by the World No.2 ranked Wanindu Hasaranga.
How else can you explain part-timer Aiden Markram’s figures in the series ? Markram who had only bowled 5 overs at an economy rate of 12.2 before the series bagan, ended the SL series with remarkable figures of 6 overs, 25 runs and picked up 4 wickets with an economy rate of 4.16. Sri Lanka’s lead spinner Wanindu Hasaranga picked up only 3 wickets in the 12 overs he bowled in the series giving away 80 runs – let that sink in.
In the 3rd and final T20I last night, South Africa’s spinners had combined figures of 14 overs, 4 wickets, 66 runs at an Econ rate of 4.71.
With all cylinders failing in the series, Sri Lanka are back to the drawing board with hardly any time left to rethink or replan.
With the limited resources, who unfortunately seem to lack the impactful skills required in the dynamic T20 game, Sri Lanka desperately needs some individuals to turn their fortunes around swiftly, to give them any chance in the highly competitive Wold Tournament which begins in just over a month away from now, in the UAE.