Mahela defends Kapugedara selection

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene yesterday defended the selection of middle order batsman Chamara Kapugedara to the 15 member national squad for the five match ODI series against India, that gets underway today, at Hambantota.

Kapugedara was not part of the Sri Lankan squad that beat Pakistan 3-1, but on Monday, he was named in the national squad after making consecutive ducks for Sri Lanka ‘A’ in Harare in the tri-nation competition involving Zimbabwe ‘A’ and South Africa ‘A’.

"It was not purely on his performances with the ‘A’ team. It was based on his good domestic season last year for NCC in the one-day competition. On that basis, we selected him to go to Australia where we had injuries to a couple of guys and then he went for the Asia Cup and played two games and scored some runs and ever since, he hasn’t played a match for us," Jayawardene explained.

"What we then decided was that he might not get an opportunity to play against Pakistan, because obviously Thirimanne and Chandimal were in front of him. So we asked him to go to Zimbabwe and play the triangular series. Just because he failed in two matches, it doesn’t mean that our selection policy that we adopted for the Australia tour has to change," Jayawardene said.

"What we are trying to do is to be consistent. It’s all up to the individuals to try and keep performing consistently. Obviously, if we see that he is not able to do that, we might change our minds, but right now, from what he did against Australia in February, has to be taken into account. Since then, he has had a few failures representing the ‘A’ team. I don’t know if the wickets were difficult or the opposition was pretty good in Zimbabwe."

Kapugedara made two ducks before the national squad for the series against India was announced and after that he managed scores of 37 and eight.

Kapugedara, 25, has featured in 91 ODIs for Sri Lanka, where he has scored 1512 runs at 22:23 with eight half-centuries. In his last 22 ODI innings, Kapugedara has managed two half-centuries.

(RC)

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