Sri Lanka’s dominant T20 Asia Cup hurrah has raised great cxpectations to making the big fling at this October’s T20 World Cup in Australia. As an upbeat Skipper Dasun Shanaka and his exuberant young charges packed their bags Friday Australia bound and the gathering at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) headquarters was abuzz as the game’s think tanks and experts were on a high that Sri Lanka was armed with the right ammunition to land the jackpot in world cricket’s fastest fad version of the game.
While the SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva was confident that Sri Lanka could bring home the big plum going by recent past performances at major tournaments culminating with winning this year’s Asia Cup, Head Coach Chris Silverwood aired that the side basked in the firepower of an all round composition driven by some world class performers to do the job in all three departments of the game.
The SLC Secretary said, “I’m confident that our team can do it on the back of some impressive performances in the recent past that has seen this Sri Lankan side gel to potential winning heights. Winning the Asia Cup so comprehensively has been a buoyant factor to repeating the feat in Australia as well.” He went on to pin point that the team was being sent two weeks ahead of the tournament kicking off was to get into the right rhythm of fine tuning to Australian conditions.
Meanwhile, the former England cricketer and coach Chris Silverwood, who has been the driving force behind the Lankan team’s turnaround, was confident that the team possessed world class bowlers to walk the walk. “In Wanindu Hasaranga we have a world class leg spinner while Maheesh Theekshana is a mystery spinner with the experienced Jeffrey Vandersay as a backup specialist while Dhananjaya de Silva lends a great supportive role turning his arm. We also have a strong batting line up while the fielding too is in good shape so that we are capable of challenging any top team going into the world cup.” He voiced that two weeks of hard work put in by the squad at Pallekelle was the ideal build up to gelling into playing in Australian conditions. “Two weeks at Pallekelle has particularly geared the fast bowlers to adapting to generating the speed, bounce and swing on Aussie wickets,” the Head Coach, who has influenced the players to playing aggressive and smart cricket in that gradual turnaround since he took over the coaching reins, said.
