Sri Lanka’s World Cup journey

This competition will give SLC a lot of optimism going forward

A World Cup of any sport is considered the pinnacle or the Everest in a team’s performance and a player’s career. In that context, the ongoing International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup in Australia was no different with so much interest and expectations from almost all the participating nations.

Whilst the top guns were aiming to clinch it, some of the lower ones wanted to make a statement as well.  As for Sri Lanka, which can be termed as one of the teams right in the middle of favourites and underdog tags, I am sure the objective was to ensure that the side will end up competing against the usual suspects.

The objective was surely to let the world know that they can compete well in the format with a possible eye on the plum via some unexpected or unusual happening.

It has to be admitted that the unexpected was very nearly a possibility for Sri Lanka in their games against Australia, New Zealand and England but somehow the lack of experience or game awareness ended up costing the side.

Judging by the way the final lineup was made, a win might have got the Islanders to the last four as and as we know, anything can happen in the knockout round.

Such an achievement would have been remarkable considering that Sri Lanka wasn’t a top-seeded team to win the World Cup, to begin with, and they had to play a qualifying round to cement their place in the Super 12s.

However, failing to qualify for the last four might demand some inquiry as to what went wrong, the question that most fans have been asking.

Whilst one wouldn’t be able to pinpoint a particular reason, there could be a one as to why this Sri Lankan side that came into the World Cup with their confidence high after winning Asia Cup Champions not so long ago, didn’t put up a show that was somewhat expected of them back home in the main round.

To start with, the most obvious of all reasons has to be the injuries the team had to endure. The reasons for the said injuries need inquiring into but the impact it caused to the side was deadly.

Losing your best fast-bowler in the form of Dushmantha Chameera who had a reputation for producing big performances was a severe blow.

Then the tall Binura Fernando who could have been ideal for the bouncy surfaces of Australia and the young and exciting Dilshan Madushanka — who castled the Indian Great Virat Kohli — also had fitness concerns.

Danushka Gunathilake’s injury robbed Sri Lanka of a top batter irrespective of the form he displayed in the recent past.

Obviously, such drawbacks can put a team’s World Cup plans completely off track and so was the case for Sri Lanka as their focus shifted from competing for the ultimate glory to finding resources to rebuild the side.

In fairness to the bowlers who were available during the mega-event, especially Lahiru Kumara, the effort was monumental.

Kumara coming into the World cup had his issues in T20 cricket and especially bowling in the death overs. It was heartening to watch him put it behind and bowl the way he did.

The spin trio of Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana were very effective barring the one game against Australia.

As for the missed opportunities, I am sure Dasun Shanaka would have yearned for another fast-bowler at Perth when Binura Fernando broke down.

And then against New Zealand, the Pathum Nissanka catch which was missed at a most crucial stage could have been the defining moment.

Even other than the drop catches, Sri Lanka’s fielding wasn’t up to their sharpest. Their catching percentage was in the 60s when the top teams were in the late 80s and 90s and there were other hiccups as well.

Against England, it was the lower middle-order that caved in against some very good bowling by Adil Rashid and Sam Curran from which they never recovered.

As for the batting, it revolved around just three players and they too were patchy. Kusal Mendis, Nissanka and De Silva were the ones that had something to show but the rest sadly never kick on.

Adding insult to injury was the all-rounders effort with the bat in hand where Shanaka, Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne could not make any notable contributions.

Other than them, even Bhanuka Rajapaksa had a pretty average competition where he only managed to score just 117 runs at an average of 17.85 along with a below-par strike-rate of 119.04.

When a team was hit by injuries and then you had the above issues to deal with as well, the problems became extremely compounded and hence progress became nearly impossible.

Despite all that, one cannot forget the efforts of the team in a positive sense too. The biggest and the most gratifying is that Sri Lanka now have a direct entry to the next T20 World Cup and they will not have to go through a similar route the way they had to this time around.

That development will going to be a relief and comfort for the former world champions in the format and therefore, the preparations must be already underway.

One of the positives for the side going forward is the young nucleus of the team where there is only one player aged 31 or above.

There are plenty of younger guns waiting in the wings either showing plenty of potential or recovering from injuries which creates massive competition for places in the team looking ahead to the future.

A healthy competition for places in any sporting team is the best one could hope for and that also turns out to be a positive headache for the selectors as well.

Also, Shanaka as a captain has shown clear signs of improvement and maturity and if he can show more consistency with the bat then Sri Lanka will be in an excellent position come the next World Cup in 2024 where they will have a seasoned leader and a more experienced team, waiting to showcase their talent against the best in the business.

To bring more stability to the team, the management might be well off in asking Shanaka to bowl more because at times it almost feels like he rates himself way lesser as a bowler than he actually is.

By doing that, he is playing primarily as a batter which means that the side must look for more bowling options which is not helping him or the team going forward.

To conclude the analysis of Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup campaign, the management will be rather pleased with how the players performed, especially after the last year’s performances.

The team has plenty of reasons to be optimistic about as the players have evolved over the last 12 months or so with the backing of the selection committee.

This World Cup will give Sri Lanka cricket, once a force to be reckoned with in the shortest format, a lot of optimism going forward.

The writer is a TV, Radio commentator since 1995 and has also worked in an administrative role in Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). He tweets at @RoshanCricket