5 tricks Sri Lanka are missing in the ODI format
Sri Lanka has had a very rough time in ODI cricket post the ICC World Cup, 2015. Marquee players who were their backbone retired, leaving what looks like a massive void to fill.
The retirements of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan in recent times have exposed their batting lineup which has failed to handle the pressure and succumb to humiliating defeats of late.
The Sri Lankan administration should be blamed for not grooming new talents while those great players were around. It’s a hard task for a newcomer to come in to this team and not get compared with those players, especially if he is a batsman.
Here are 5 tricks Sri Lanka are missing in the ODI format recently:
#1 Lack of a solid and settled batting line-up
Sri Lanka currently have some batsmen who individually can win matches for them with their batting, but as a cohesive unit, they just look lost in the ODI format. Apart from their opening combination which seems to be relatively stable, every other spot in the batting order seems wobbly.
Too much chopping and changing and too many swaps in the positions for their batsmen has led to this situation. There needs to be some time-frame given by the selectors for the players to perform.
As of now, any batsmen irrespective of his talent and experience could find himself out of the team, creating a mindset of doubt and lack of clarity which is reflected in the way the batting team has shaped up in the past few years.
No team can succeed in the ODI format without having a solid and settled look to the batting line up. Sri Lanka have been changing their batters too often, which has hampered their performance to a large extent.
That is one of the reasons Australia, England and India have been performing so well in ODIs as they have a settled batting line up and more importantly, they back certain players irrespective of their experience or form.
Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Perera are players who were marked for big things. But one bad patch and the selectors somehow lose faith. They need to back them and build their batting line-up around them.
As of now, barring few players who can shine on a given day, Sri Lanka’s batting looks dazed and confused, something which reflected clearly when they collapsed from 136-1 to 216 all out against India at Dambulla in the first ODI.