Sri Lanka’s selectors have a long history of springing surprises that leave the public blinking in disbelief. Some in the present generation may find it hard to imagine that in 1968, three members of the national selection panel picked themselves for a tour of England, dumping popular Ceylon captain Michael Tissera in the process. All hell broke loose. Chandra Schaffter resigned in protest, calling out an unprecedented farce. The government stepped in, introduced the Sports Act and mandated that every national team required Sports Ministry approval — a necessary set of checks and balances to stop cricket from becoming a self-selecting club.

Fast forward to 2025 and the preliminary squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup has once again raised eyebrows. Dasun Shanaka, who not too long ago was struggling to hold onto his place, is now Sri Lanka’s captain. You can just about live with that call. After Charith Asalanka’s excesses in Pakistan, his position as skipper had become untenable, and Shanaka emerged as a Hobson’s choice. But the bigger takeaway is damning: Sri Lanka have done a poor job grooming leaders over the past five years. When Plan A collapses, there is no Plan B and the selectors are left scrambling.

What truly stopped people in their tracks, however, was news that Niroshan Dickwella is closing in on a comeback. That alone suggested the selectors care two hoots about public sentiment.

We have seen enough of Dickwella over more than a decade. The wicketkeeper-batter showed us his ceiling and his limitations. Having been discarded, there is little logic in reopening that chapter.

With Kusal Mendis doing a commendable job behind the stumps in white-ball cricket, there is no need to get carried away with Dickwella’s inclusion, especially when backups like Kusal Janith Perera and Kamil Mishara are waiting in the wings. What the selectors owe the public is an explanation: why exactly was Dickwella needed in the preliminary squad?

Instead, they could have tipped the cap to an up-and-coming player and signalled a shift towards the future. Sri Lanka have moved on from Dickwella; there is no point dragging the past back to the crease.

After 54 Test matches, the absence of a single hundred tells its own story. Dickwella had ample chances to break three figures but repeatedly threw his wicket away, reinforcing the impression of a player who often seemed to play without a care. Talent alone doesn’t win matches; temperament does.

Some may argue that Test numbers are irrelevant in the T20 format. Fair point, except that T20s are where Dickwella has struggled the most. Clearing the ropes has never been his strength. Yes, his sweeps and reverse sweeps allow him to milk spinners, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. With Kusal Mendis as wicketkeeper, Sri Lanka’s DRS record has been impressive; with Dickwella behind the stumps, it has been downright horrendous.

More worrying is the distraction Dickwella brings to the dressing room. The selectors should have learnt their lesson after the bio-bubble breach in England, which saw him sent home along with two others. A retired judge who conducted the inquiry recommended a one-year ban, only for authorities to play soft hands and reduce it to barely three months.

If that wasn’t enough, alarm bells should have rung louder when he was appointed captain of a Lanka Premier League side, only for it to emerge that he had tested positive for drugs in August last year, earning another suspension. That should have been the last straw.

Yet, remarkably, Dickwella keeps finding his way back into the frame.

At some point, authorities must draw a firm line. The game is not short of talent, but it is short of accountability. And until selectors learn to value both, the same old mistakes will keep being replayed, like a bad highlight reel no one wants to watch again.

by Rex Clementine ✍️

All the three games in this series have followed a similar pattern so far. India have won three tosses – yup, you read that right – elected to bowl, and then used dew to their advantage to chase down modest totals unchallenged.

With a T20 World Cup around the corner, and an unassailable 3-0 lead in their pocket, it would be prudent for India to start challenging themselves and look to set totals if their luck with the toss continues.

They’d also want to perhaps find a way to expand their squad depth a bit more – the lower-order firepower seemed lacking in the 2024 tournament. G Kamalini brings with her the same big-hitting promise Richa Ghosh did as a teenager in 2020. Maybe it’s time to unleash her?

For Sri Lanka, simply being able to challenge India for long enough has been quite a task. They continue to be heavily reliant on Chamari Athapaththu – it’s a bit like how Mithali Raj carried India’s batting for nearly a decade before Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur took centre stage.

Sri Lanka continue to mix and match to find their own versions of Mandhana and Harmanpreet and, while there has been promise here and there, consistent performers have been hard to find.

After Radha Yadav, Tanuja Kanwar, Saika Ishaque and N Shree Charani, 20-year-old Yaishnavi Sharma is the latest to break into India’s left-arm spin club. But, she’s the only one among the five to do so without the WPL giving her a leg up. Vaishnavi finished as the leading wicket-taker in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy with 21 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 6.47. She backed it up in the inter-zonal tournament and again in these three games against Sri Lanka. Her composure has been striking. So too the courage to keep tossing the ball up.

When Sri Lanka stunned India to win last year’s Asia Cup final,  top-scorer Harshitha Samarawickrema seemed a player of immense promise. But in the 17 months since, such moments have been rare. Coach Rumesh Ratnayake continues to back her and believes a turnaround is imminent, and she’ll be keen to repay the faith. Since the start of the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, she is yet to score a half century in nine innings.

With a T20 World Cup just six months away, this is India’s chance to expand their talent pool and to that end, they may want to bring 17-year-old wicketkeeper Kamalini into the mix and see what she can do.

India (probable):  Smriti Mandhana,  Shafali Verma,  Jemimah Rodrigues,  Harmanpreet Kaur (capt),  Richa Ghosh/ G Kamalini (wk),  Deepti Sharma,  Amanjot Kaur,  Renuka Singh/Arundhati Reddy,  Kranti Gaud,  Vaishnavi Sharma,  Shree Charani

As a response to their batting needing more support, Sri Lanka made three changes in the last game and ended up posting just 112. There may be more changes on Sunday.

Sri Lanka (probable): Chamari Athapaththu (capt), Hasini Perera,  Harshitha Samarawickrama,  Imesha Dulani,  Nilakshika Silva,  Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk),  Kavisha Dilhari,  Malki Madara, Inoka Ranaweera,  Malsha Snehani,  Nimasha Meepage

[Cricinfo]

For the first time in 19 matches, and nearly 15 years, England’s men experienced a Test victory in Australia as the MCG raced to the second two-day finish of the Ashes series. On a tough surface which will continue to come under the spotlight in the aftermath, England’s top order met their target of 175 with aggression and they eventually got home with four wickets in hand.

It was only the fifth time in Test history that a series had included multiple two-day finishes, and before this summer, there had only been two in history in Australia. Although more than 186,000 had attended the match across two record-breaking days, it left Cricket Australia facing another significant financial loss – the Ashes has proved a costly affair, and Ben Stokes acknowledged it was far from ideal, but England have avoided the risk of another whitewash down under.

Jacob Bethell who was recalled for this match, compiled 40 to give a glimpse at his potential, but his dismissal meant this would be the first Test in Australia without an individual half-century since 1932 and just the fifth overall. Bethell’s wicket was followed by a little wobble with the winning line in sight. Joe Root was lbw to Jhye Richardson and Stokes carved an edge off Mitchell Starc with ten need, but four leg byes finished the job to roars from the travelling support, although more muted celebrations from England.