Sri Lanka to blood youth

Sri Lanka is likely to experiment with a couple of newcomers when the Test series against the touring West Indies gets underway at the Galle International Stadium next week.

The national selectors believe that it is the right time to provide the necessary international exposure to these promising youngsters following the retirement of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

In fact Sri Lanka has tried out three batsmen for the vacant number three position with Lahiru Thirimanne, Upul Tharanga and Dimuth Karunaratne all failing to deliver the desired results in the recent past.

As a result the three-day fixture that starts on October 8 at the SSC ground in Maitland Place has virtually turned out to be a trial match with the national selectors having a close eye on some of the potential players.

“We are really concerned about these young players who will be our future stars, and we feel we should give these players more international exposure so that they could prove themselves at the highest level,” revealed chairman national selection committee Kapila Wijegunawardene.

The head of the national selection committee further stated that they have been following and observing these players in the recent past during the domestic and Sri Lanka A tours and believed that the players should be in a position to take up the challenge at Test match level.

“We have a systematic way of providing these opportunities to the up and coming players and we will open the pathways for them at the correct time so that they could make an impact in different formats of the game”.

The Sri Lanka team is of course hoping to bounce back following two back-to-back 1-2 home series defeats at the hands of India and Pakistan recently.

However Wijegunawardena noted that they are not very much concerned about the recent performances and the results on the field and believe that they would still like to have a couple of youngsters making it to the Test squad.

“We have some talented players like Milinda Siriwardena, Kusal Mendis, Minodh Bhanuka, Angelo Jayasinghe and Vishwa Fernando who have been knocking at the door for quite some time and we will certainly consider their performances,” added Wijegunawardena.

However the recent bad weather conditions have not only affected the training schedule of the players but even the strategy of the national selectors who are still undecided on wheather they should attack with pace or spin.

“I think our strength in the recent past have been more on spin but with the current bad weather conditions we are yet to make up our mind in this regard,” emphasised Wijegunawardena.

However Sri Lanka is likely to stick with the style of fielding seven batsmen and four bowlers. In fact it was the batting department that certainly let the side down during the home series against India and Pakistan.

Wijegunawardena also stated that none of the batting positions in the team were fixed and they need to work out the combinations depending on the players’ talent and potential.

He believed that the series against the West Indies will be another good opportunity for them to carry out some experiments and to identify the most suitable batsman for the respective position.
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