Ashen Bandara has been named in the Sri Lankan squad for the first time.(The Papare)

by Rex Clementine

Over the years, there’s been a few concerns about Sri Lanka’s poor fielding standards. Dropped catches have cost the national cricket team dearly with costliest of them being at the Champions Trophy in 2017 in Wales when Thisara Perera put down Sarfraz Ahmed. At the post match media briefing, the Pakistan captain rubbed salt into wounds saying, ‘I will remember it for the rest of my life and he will remember it for the rest of his life.’ Pakistan went onto win the title beating arch-rivals India in the final at The Oval. Mickey Arthur was Pakistan’s coach.

Arthur desperately searches for fielding excellence and he was able to raise Pakistan’s standards. He seems like pushing for excellence in fielding with Sri Lanka too and several young players who are good fielders are being drafted into the side and the most exciting of them all is Ashen Bandara.

Galle has produced many fine cricket talents in recent years with Richmond College producing most of these standout players. Bandara, however, is from St. Aloysius.

In 2017, during the Galle Test against India, a few players were injured and soon word was sent to the closest school to the ground to send a few players just in case of emergency. So St. Aloysius sent down a few of their First XI cricketers and Ashen was one of them.

In fact, Ashen had to come onto the field for a session. He was electric – diving around and sprinting like a cheetah to cut off boundaries. He caught the imagination of Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who predicted a bright future for the young kid.

That Ashen would go onto make headlines in international cricket was first predicted by Upul Chandana, the fielding coach of Sri Lanka Under-19.

“We are really pleased that both Ashen Bandara and Pathum Nissanka are joining us on tour for the first time. They are both dynamic and versatile in the field which is a credit to Manoj Abeywickrama and the staff at High Performance Center,” Shane McDermott, Fielding Coach of the Sri Lankan team told The Island.

“Ashen is very exciting young talent. He hits the ball well and he is very athletic. He has a good technique and he is electrifying in the field,” Head Coach Mickey Arthur said.