The holidays are over. It’s time for some serious work for the Sri Lankan Cricketers who eagerly await their next assignment in England.
Sri Lanka made history last time they visited the home of cricket winning all three series’ (T20, ODI and Test) even though they were not expected to do so. This time will be no different with the pundits supposing a bashing for the Lankans at the hands of the in-form English unit.
The South Asian Islanders were poorly beaten in the shortest formats of the game during the Asia Cup and ICC World T20 but they need to rehabilitate themselves quickly and infuse some radical self-belief in order to beat a tough English outfit in their own den.
As the Lankans are preparing for another summer-opening tour, we take a look at some of the new and tried and tested players who could make the trip to the Land of the Rose for the three-match series in May and June.
Tharanga Paranavithana
According to our sources, the national selectors are expected to bring back the 34-year old top-order batsman Tharanga Paranvithana into the Test squad in place of Udara Jayasundara who had a disappointing outing scoring only 30 runs out of 4 innings in New Zealand.
Paranvithana enjoys a par Test batting average of 32.00 from 32 games and he last donned the national jersey way back in 2012 at P.Sara Oval. He made 40 and 00 against the Kiwis but since then has been left in the wilderness. In 2015, he made a club-shift to Tamil Union C & AC from SSC. The left-hander had a superb 2015/16 domestic season scoring 953 runs in 10 matches with 3 centuries at an average of almost 80.00.
Paranavithana may be expected to bat at number 3 as the latest opening duo, Dimuth Karunarathne and Kusal Mendis performed reasonably well in New Zealand last December adding scores of 19, 54, 39 and 71 in the two Test matches.
Kaushal Silva
The biggest question mark hangs on where to fit in the diminutive and in-form Kaushal Silva. Will he replace the promising talent of Kusal Mendis or will he get the wicket-keeper batsman position at number 7? The 29-year old Silva was dropped from the Test opener’s role after scoring only one half-century during his last 11 Test innings. He was picked for the New Zealand Tests as a replacement wicket-keeper batsman for Kusal Janith Perera but never got the chance to play. He went back to domestic cricket and stunned the critics by hammering two back-to-back first-class double hundreds for SSC. He is almost a surety to make the trip to England but the role he will play remains in the balance.
Dhammika Prasad
The old war-horse is back. Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling spearhead, Dhammika Prasad after successfully recovering from a back injury he sustained during the tour game against New Zealand Board President’s XI in Queenstown last December, where he bowled only four overs for 20 runs will be an automatic inclusion into the 15-man squad for the three-match Test series. The hard-working 32-year old has been in tremendous form in the last couple of years perching himselfas the spearhead of the Sri Lanka Test bowling attack. Prasad has fond memories of England 2014 where he took 6 wickets including a five-for to inspire the ‘Leeds’ victory. Since then he has bowled in 24 innings and captured 47 wickets, from which only in 4 innings he failed to pick up a wicket.
The man with a big heart and a perpetual fighting attitude will need to recuperate soon and repeat his excellent performances just like in 2014 to turn back Sri Lanka into winning ways in the longer format of the game. Prasad will most probably be joined by Dushmantha Chameera and Nuwan Pradeep to make the three-pronged fast-bowling attack. Will the selectors add Prasad to the ODI and T20 squad? They could also look to reserve him only for Test, even though the temptation to use him in the ODIs if he is fully-fit would be irrisistable.
Roshane Silva
The 27-year old right-hander from Ragama Cricket Club has been in terrific form lately in the Premier League Tournament 2015/16. He started off the season badly but made up at the latter parts of the campaign scoring a double-century and a century to end with a terrific average of 56.50. The former Josephian has scored over 5000 first-class runs in his 84 games and averages 50 but has still not caught the eye of the selectors. He made a match-saving 120 for Sri Lanka A against New Zealand A last October in Christchurch. Will he be the specialist middle-order batsman for Sri Lanka in England to replace Kithruwan Vithanage from the squad which toured New Zealand? If Chandimal would keep wickets, will the selectors go with Silva at the number 6 position and ask Siriwardana to bat at number 7?
Dhananjaya De Silva
The 24-year old young right-handed batsman from Galle who is also a part-time spinner has been scoring runs heavily for his club Tamil Union C & AC during his maiden tenure at P.Sara Oval. He was instrumental for his club’s first league championship after 65 years scoring 868 runs at an average of 54.25, and has also been Tamil Union’s leading wicket-taker, claiming 34 scalps. He played a couple of T20Is against Pakistan last August but never got the chance again even though he was adjudged the Best Player during the Super T20 Provincial Tournament scoring 234 runs in 6 games for Colombo Commandoes. There is every probability that he will make the trip to England for the limited-overs leg but will the selectors gamble and give this young man an opportunity?
With the early-summer conditions in England, the basic selection criteria would be to play 7 batsmen, 3 fast-bowlers and a spinner. In order to fulfil those requirements, the selectors might go with 8 specialist batsmen, 5 fast-bowlers and 2 spinners in their squad. Do not forget the 16th member who will be an under 19 player from the Super U19 Provincial Tournament. As the tournament is yet to start, we will leave you to guess that one!!
Probable Test squad – Angelo Mathews (Captain), Dinesh Chandimal (Vice-Captain), Dimuth Karunarathne, Kaushal Silva, Tharanga Paranavithana, Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana, Roshane Silva, Rangana Herath, Jefferey Vandersay, Dhammika Prasad, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Shaminda Eranga.
