Sports
Our batters failed to adapt – Kandamby
Rex Clementine
in St. Lucia
Following Sri Lanka’s exit in the ICC T-20 World Cup without making it to the second round, the team’s Batting Coach Thilina Kandamby lamented the batters’ approach against South Africa and Bangladesh that cost the team a slot in the Super Eight stage of the 20 nation tournament.
The team did get their act together in St. Lucia when they beat Netherlands comfortably after the match against Nepal was washed out, but it was too late by then.
“It has been a challenging campaign. Preparations I thought we did well. We worked hard at training. I don’t want to blame the wickets for our loss, but we failed to execute our plans. The batters didn’t adapt to conditions. All our preparation was gone after just two batting flops,” Kandamby, former Sri Lanka Under-19 captain told reporters.
In both games that Sri Lanka lost in New York and Dallas, the batters were dismissed trying to execute big shots, but their game plan seemed to have changed in St. Lucia where they relied more on converting singles into twos and twos into threes.
“Our game plan we tried to get more twos. First game we made less than 80 runs. The second game was a small ground and we couldn’t execute the plan. St. Lucia was big. So, we could run hard and put pressure on the fielders. It is the confidence that was lacking.
There have been questions asked whether Sri Lanka brought the best squad to the World Cup. Lack of power hitting has been one thing that has been discussed in many corners. But Kandamby was happy with the composition of the side.
“This is the best team that we can bring. We haven’t had many power hitters over the years. Even when we won the World Cup in 2014 apart from Thisara Perera, we didn’t have many power hitters. We had lot of classical players. We played different brands of cricket. If you look at our stats, across all three formats since January this year, we have hit 150 sixes. That’s a decent number.”
Sri Lanka returned home from St. Lucia Monday morning. It’s long journey back home with transits in Miami and Dubai. The players have couple of weeks lead up to the Lanka Premier League followed by the white ball series against India at home that begins in early August.
Charith Asalanka (Captain), Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Pavan Rathnayake, Dhananjaya de Silva, Janith Liyanage, Kamindu Mendis, Dunith Wellalage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jeffrey Vandersay, Maheesh Theekshana, Milan Rathnayake, Asitha Fernando, Pramod Madushan, Eshan Malinga.
On Tuesday, a day before the ICC is expected to take a final call on Bangladesh’s participation at the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup, the PCB wrote to the governing body stating that it supports the BCB’s stance on not wanting to play in India at a time of political turmoil in the neighbourhood. ESPNcricinfo has learned that that PCB also copied the members of the ICC Board in it.
It is understood that the ICC has called a Board meeting on Wednesday to address the matter of the BCB asking for Bangladesh’s matches to be shifted to Sri Lanka because of security concerns in India. It could not be ascertained if the PCB’s email led to the Board meeting being called.
The timing of the PCB email could raise eyebrows, but it is understood that it will not impact the ICC’s stance so far, of not changing the World Cup schedule and allowing Bangladesh to play in Sri Lanka, co-hosts of the tournament with India. The ICC has been firm on this and has conveyed the same to the BCB during its interactions last week.
The BCB, with the Bangladesh government’s support, has refused to travel to India for the team’s group-stage games.
The ICC and the BCB have met several times to discuss the issue, most recently in Dhaka last weekend. But neither side has shifted their stances – the ICC insisting matches must go ahead as planned and the BCB that it cannot send its team to India. January 21 – Wednesday – had been set as a deadline for a decision, less than three weeks before the start of the tournament.
The PCB’s late involvement in the matter comes on the back of a week of speculation around their possible ways out of the impasse. There were unverified reports that the PCB had offered to stage Bangladesh’s games in Pakistan and, more dramatically, that the PCB was reviewing Pakistan’s participation in the World Cup, contingent on what happens with Bangladesh.
The PCB has not commented publicly on the matter, or responded to ESPNcricinfo’s queries.
The stand-off began when the BCCI instructed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to remove Mustafizur Rahman from their squad for IPL 2026. The reasons for that have never been fully explained, though a worsening of political ties between Bangladesh and India has been cited. That prompted the Bangladesh government to formally state that the Bangladesh team would not play its matches in India.
The situation has spiralled since then, even leading to a player boycott in Bangladesh, which affected the ongoing BPL, after a senior BCB official spoke disparagingly of the country’s premier players when asked about the financial implications for the BCB if Bangladesh ended up staying away from the T20 World Cup altogether
(Cricinfo)
Rain in Bulawayo allowed just ten overs of action between Bangladesh and New Zealand .
The match began an hour later than scheduled, and as a 47-over contest after Bangladesh opted to bowl. Iqbal Hossain Emon cleaned Hugo Bogue up for 8 in the second over, but just as Aryan Mann and Tom Jones steadied New Zealand, rain returned, only for no play to be possible after that.
It was New Zealand’s second washed-out game in a row, and they will hope to beat India in their final group game so that they don’t have to depend on the result of the Bangladesh-USA match to progress to the Super Sixes.
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