Rex Clementine in New York

Sri Lankan fans are still trying to come to terms with the inexplicable display the team put out in their opening encounter of the ICC T-20 World Cup. Captain Wanindu Hasaranga has received lot of flak after the team was bowled out for their lowest total ever in T-20 cricket.

Hasaranga’s decision to bat first on Monday has not gone down too well with fans. Rightly so. New York is unknown territory and the team could have been better off trying to figure out how the wicket behaved. Bowl first would have been the right option. As for South Africa, they were going to bowl first if they had won the toss for obvious reasons.

Most of us who have followed the game figured out within the first five overs that this is not a 160 wicket and perhaps you should revise your intended target to 125. But Sri Lanka’s batters kept losing their wickets trying to play shots. Nobody seemed to have told them that we have reassessed things.

The other aspect that has drawn lot of criticism is the captain promoting himself up the order to number four and picking a second ball duck. Now that criticism is unfair. Here’s why.

Having enjoyed unprecedented success in the last Lanka Premier League having promoted himself as a ‘floater’, Hasaranga tried the ploy in Sri Lankan colours too after being appointed captain. He has won games too having pushed himself up the order with his attacking batting. Despite the criticism he needs to keep doing it. After all, he has been currently rated as world’s number one all-rounder.

Hasaranga, however, can be bit smart with the move. Currently, he has become predictable. Opponents know that the Sri Lankan captain is going to throw the kitchen sink playing a few shots coming up the order. Why not use it as a surprise weapon? That’s the point the management and the selectors need to tell the captain.

Another point for the selectors to ponder is their choice of wicketkeeper. Kusal Mendis’ dropped catches in the opening game went unnoticed as there were several glaring errors with batting and decision making. But the team can not afford to have  dropped catches heading into what’s a knockout game against Bangladesh. We all remember what happened with David Warner’s dropped catch when Sri Lanka played Australia in Dubai in the 2021 T-20 World Cup.

Is Kusal the best wicketkeeper in the squad? If Sadeera Samarawickrama is in the playing XI, why is he not keeping?