Sports
Our strength of beating Bangladesh is pace – De Mel
by Rex Clementine
Sri Lanka have always relied on spin to win Test matches on home tracks but times have changed and Chairman of Selectors cum Manager of the national cricket team Ashantha De Mel conceded that it is time to switch to pace when Bangladesh tour the island for a three match Test series.
Sri Lanka have enjoyed overwhelming success against Bangladesh having won 16 of the 20 Tests between the countries and while on paper they definitely have an edge, the tourists are no more pushovers as they proved during the tour of 2017 when they won their maiden Test match against Sri Lanka. That loss eventually cost Graeme Ford his job.
It is sensible to rely on pace against Bangladesh as they have formidable spin options while Sri Lanka’s spinners – except maybe an aging Dilruwan Perera (38) – are raw.
“Our thinking is to beat them with pace. It’s not definitely going to be spin. Bangladesh have a decent spin attack whereas we have a very good set of fast bowlers. So it’s sensible to stick to our strength. We might keep about five quicks in the squad. That is what the coaches are thinking,” De Mel told Sunday Island.
A pool of 23 players will start training next week (on Thursday) after a much needed break following the conclusion of the domestic season. De Mel singled out several players who were impressive during the season.
“Minod Bhanuka looked very promising. He is an aggressive player and good to see someone with such attacking instincts. Santhush Gunathilaka at six foot two hits the deck hard and has a smooth action. He is handy with the bat too. Then there is Lahiru Udara, who has been quite impressive. We are looking at keeping the younger guys in the squad so that they can gain exposure by being in the set up. Together with coaches, we have watched lot of domestic cricket and we need to appreciate what they have done and then look at which one to fast track.
Sri Lanka Cricket is yet to announce the schedule for the tour, but Sunday Island learns that the teams will be involved in a three Test series as was in the original itinerary. The series was supposed to be played in July but was postponed due to outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be the first international cricket series involving Sri Lanka since February this year.
SLC was looking at ways to play two Tests at Pallekele as conditions generally suit seam bowlers there more than any other venue. The remaining Test match will take place in Colombo and SSC seems to be the preferred choice. This means Galle – which rarely misses out on Test match cricket – will not host a game. A final decision is yet to be made as some seniors of the team are keen to play in Galle.
Bangladesh are expected to arrive in the island later this month with a pool of 30 players and will be involved in training and practice matches. Sources said that the first Test is likely to take place on the 24th of October. SLC are in discussions with health authorities on safety measures that need to be followed during the series. Board officials said while players and match officials will be in a ‘bubble’, they were looking at the possibilities of accommodating a limited number of fans during the games.
A home series against England was meant to be the ideal dress rehearsal, a chance for Sri Lanka to oil the wheels and gather momentum ahead of the World Cup starting later this week. Instead, the campaign has gone awfully wrong. Plenty of promise, precious little substance. Bar the lone victory in the opening ODI, the hosts have spent the white-ball leg chasing shadows, the ODI series defeat a bitter pill and the T20I whitewash a full-blown reality check. Sri Lanka’s frailties against spin were already an open secret; this series merely put them under a brighter spotlight, throwing up more questions than answers.
Handing three wickets in an over to a part-timer like Jacob Bethell is the sort of generosity normally reserved for charity matches. Failing to hunt down 129 on surfaces the batting unit has been reared on, rank turners that should feel like home cooking, tells its own grim tale.
The malaise is rooted in mindset. Too many batters are reaching for the glory shot, swinging from the heels when the situation demands nudges into gaps, hard yards between the wickets and a willingness to play the waiting game.
Cricket, after all, is not always about clearing the ropes; sometimes it is about milking the bowling and letting the scoreboard tick over. Unless these rough edges are sanded down, Sri Lanka risk walking into the World Cup with the same old cracks papered over.
Recent T20 World Cups have been a sobering reminder of how far the side has drifted. A meek first-round exit last time and the indignity of qualifying rounds before that should have set alarm bells ringing. Yet, carrying largely the same cast into a fourth successive global event, the team continues to tread water, repeating errors like a stuck record rather than turning the page.
One positive has been the improved handling of injuries that once felled key players at the worst moments, but elsewhere the repair job remains half-finished.
The biggest question mark hovers over captain Dasun Shanaka. A skipper struggling to read the wrong’un, let alone steer a chase, can quickly become dead weight. His elevation came out of the blue and the warning signs were there from day one, but they were waved away. Cricket, like life, has a habit of punishing stubbornness, and Sri Lanka are discovering that harsh truth the hard way.
Rex Clementine at Pallekele
India’s explosive batting juggernaut rolled on to the doorstep of the men’s T20 World Cup 2026, helping them beat South Africa by 30 runs in the warm-up fixture at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The margin of defeat only reduced because of two overs of 22 and 20 against Shivam Dube at the death.
Opting to bat at a ground which saw teams preferring to chase in the first leg of WPL 2026, Ishan Kishan got India off to an explosive start. He rollicked to a 20-ball 53, which included a sequence of 6, 6, 4, 6 in the fifth over from Anrich Nortje, before retiring out as India finished the powerplay on 83 for 1. Tilak Varma, who played the warm-up for India A a couple of nights ago at the same venue and linked up with the Indian squad just before this warm-up game, looked fluent from get-go in his 19-ball 45.
Suryakumar Yadav as well as Hardik Pandya later freed their arm without inhibition as India posted a mammoth 240 for 5. Nortje, who has played just one international since the last T20 World Cup, conceded 57 in his three overs on the night, after his comeback game against West Indies last week also gave him figures of 3-0-59-0. Kagiso Rabada, too, was expensive, going for 44 off his three overs.
For South Africa, Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton added 65 in just five overs in the powerplay. Markram hit four sixes in his 19-ball 38 while Rickelton, batting at No. 3, made 44 off 21. But they kept losing wickets regularly and had lost half their side by the 11th over.
Jason Smith, Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen kept peppering the boundaries to punish Abhishek Sharma and then Dube but the challenge was too steep by then.
Brief scores:
India 240 for 5 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 53, Tilak Varma 45, Axar Patel 35*; Marco Jansen 1-18) beat South Africa 210 for 7 in 20 overs (Tristan Stubbs 45*, Ryan Rickelton 44, Aiden Markram 38, Jason Smith 35; Abhishek Sharma 2-32) by 30 runs
[Cricinfo]
On a batting beauty at the Harare Sports Club, India’s assembly line of batting talent was out in full splendour in the Under-19 World Cup semifinal. There were two centurions in a statement innings from Afghanistan, but Uzairullah Niazai and Faisal Shinozada’s knocks – glorious as they were – were rendered footnotes by a superb century from Aaron George, who led India’s record chase of 311 with the kind of composure that belied his low scores from earlier in the tournament.
Afghanistan 310/4 in 50 overs (Faisal Shinozada 110, Uzairullah Niazai 101; Kanishk Chouhan 2-55, Deepesh Devendran 2-64) lost to India 311/3 in 41.1 overs (Aaron George 115, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 68, Ayush Mhatre 62; Nooristani Omarzai 2-64) by 7 wickets.
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