Sri Lanka continue to struggle abroad. After convincingly winning the first two ODI’s against Zimbabwe, they struggled quite badly for a top international team to win the next 3 ODI’s.
Sri Lanka didn’t quite deserve to win the fifth ODI yesterday, having been skittled out for 150. However, Zimbabwe were more dismal than Sri Lanka with their batting that they couldn’t reach home after being within striking distance of victory.
The abyssmal performance by Sri Lanka, which is not quite highlighted by their 5-0 series whitewash, throws up some serious revelations.
1) Sri Lanka continue to be poor travellers and that was evident from the way they struggled to beat Zimbabwe convincingly in the last three ODI’s. They lost a test match against a side that was ranked slightly better than Zimbabwe a few months ago as well.
2) Sri Lanka tried out a lot of youngsters and none of them performed against Zimbabwe. This shows that barring Sangakkara and Jayawardena, there is no other batsman worth representing Sri Lanka at the International level.
3) Their bowling isn’t any good and wicket exploits against Zimbabwe don’t make any young fast bowler an international prospect. Mendis won another man of the series, but Sri Lanka’s pace bowling stocks look depleted, or rather non-existent.
4) Sri Lanka have begun their rebuilding phase after the retirements of Jayasuriya and some in the middle order. But their talent pool looks weak and that doesn’t make Sri Lanka a threatening International force anymore.
They’ll still continue to be lions at home, winning test matches against average sides at home with Murali and Mendis at the helm.
Considering such a toothless performance against Zimbabwe and the lack of options, there is every chance that Sri Lanka will drop down on the ICC cricket rankings both in tests and ODI’s.
3 responses so far ↓
damiths // December 6, 2008 at 7:42 pm |
Actually we dint try some of the youngsters who we should have.
Namely Thilina Kandamby, Captain of the SL A team. He has been in sensational form and I have been campaigning to get him in to the team.
Our openers were woeful. However there is some talent in Udawatte, unfortunately he has since been dropped after Zimbabwe.
Even Sanga struggled in Zim. From the reports the wickets were pretty bad. This is not an excuse though.
There are a couple more youngsters that have a lot of potential- Angelo Matthews, Malinda Warnapura who should be getting into the team soon.
Btw Sanath is back for the ODIs again.
Our bowling actually has been quite brilliant so I kinda disagree with your comments.
Our fast bowlin stocks are better than they have ever been
-Thilan Thushara is very impressive and should develop into an all rounder in both forms soon
-Dammika Prasad- quite pacy and bowled well when he had his chance.
-Nuwan Kulesekara, a good ODI bowler.
-Dilhara, still around and is still pretty ok.
-Chanaka Welagedara- played one test against Eng and was very impressive, Im expecting him in both teams soon.
Mendis has been surreal. And in that last game we won he dint get a wicket
It was Nuwan who did the job.
There is potential. I am not convinced we will slide too far down !
Link swap ?
12th Man // December 6, 2008 at 11:31 pm |
Warnapura scored a century against India in the first test match in Colombo. I remember watching Uddawatte in West Indies and he did not have a great outing there. You are mentioning a few young prospects and i am waiting to see them in International cricket.
Regarding the bowling, Dammika was decent in the few games i saw him bowl. Vaas has lost his sting and is playing on his past performances alone, Dilhara has been around for a long time that nobody seems to care about him. If not for the odd wicket burst here and there, he has been an underachiever. I still don’t rate Kulasekara as a top bowler, as i have seen him struggle against the top sides. Thushara was consistent with the bat in the ODI series against India, but conceded way too many runs with the ball. Even in the match where he picked up a five fer, he went for plenty. The spin department looks healthy though, with Mendis promising lots and Murali, having a few years left in him.
I am no stranger to you Damith. I am already there in your Facebook group. You can find me by my name:Mukundhan.
India vs Sri Lanka - 3rd ODI Review « Chinese Cut // February 4, 2009 at 2:05 pm |
[...] which struggled to beat Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the recent past. I had mentioned in this blog earlier how important it was for Sri Lanka to improve certain aspects of their game before they toured [...]