Rex Clementine in Dubai

The national cricket team travelled back home yesterday (Friday) night having been away for a month and their performance during the ICC T-20 World Cup here in UAE were commended by many. The former champions had little momentum behind them when they left the island having been blanked by South Africa 3-0 at home. More than half the members in the tour party had played less than a handful of T-20 Internationals and there were worries whether Sri Lanka would even qualify having been grouped alongside Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia.

But to their credit, Dasun Shanaka’s side stormed to the second round with a clean sheet having won by heavy margins. In the Super 12 stage, they beat Bangladesh and West Indies while losing to England, Australia and  South Africa. The game against Proteas was decided in the penultimate delivery of the game.

All in all this campaign has been an excellent one. The  emergence of several young players should be the base on which Sri Lanka should be building on.

By the time Sri Lanka played their last game in the second round, they had the two leading run scorers in the competition in Charith Asalanka and Pathum Nissanka while Wanindu Hasaranga was the leading wicket taker. Into the bargain, Hasaranga also rose through the ranks and today he is world’s number one bowler in T-20 cricket. Not since Ajantha Mendis in 2011, Sri Lanka had a player ranked number one. All three players were involved in their first ICC event.

Maheesh Theekshana after being pushed into the deep end of bowling to some of the greats of the game in the Power Plays came off with flying colours as he contained the batsmen with his accurate bowling.

Dushmantha Chameera with his raw pace was on the money making breakthroughs every time he was called up to bowl.

Avishka Fernando on whom there was a lot of expectations was a disappointment along with Kusal Perera, the team’s senior most player. Had KJP’s wicket keeping been sharp, Sri Lanka could have pushed some teams even closer.

KJP’s contributions as a senior player was a disappointment. To start with you are not firing on all cylinders but surely you can at least be more proactive on and off the field helping a young team rebuild. On the field, when things were derailing, KJP’s contributions were not much and off the field you can get an idea that he has not been contributing much as he did not attend a single press briefing standing up as a senior player. Instead, Sri Lanka sent someone like Maheesh Theekshana, who was on his first tour for three press briefings. Surely, you expect more from a former captain. Or, is it a case of sour grapes having been stripped of captaincy?

There’s excitement among the fans that Sri Lanka have come out of their extended poor run. There’s lot of hope moving forward.

Death bowling is one of the areas that the team needs to work on. It is Sri Lanka’s death bowling that cost them a semi-final berth as England and South Africa did too much damage in that period.

Another area that needs to be looked at is the options batsmen are taking against spin bowling. They have struggled against quality spin, especially wrist spinners and the issue needs urgent attention.