Monday 24 February 2014

Sri Lanka, the weakest team in Asia Cup

Team from Emerald Island has been touring Bangladesh from quite a some time now. They have won in all formats, but the victories are far from convincing. Bangladesh, with injuries to major players, have pushed the 1996 world champions in all the matches played. What would have happened if Bangladesh had a strong team? Sri Lanka might have been whitewashed easily.

Sri Lanka Cricket Team
Sri Lanka Cricket Team will want to prove that they aren't weak


Problem is Sri Lanka cricket at the moment is drought of quality players in their squad. The Sri Lanka squad selected for Asia Cup tournament is as follows:

Sri Lanka squad: Angelo Mathews (c), Dinesh Chandimal, Chaturanga de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis, Kusal Perera, Thisara Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Ashan Piyanjan, Kumara Sangakkara (wk), Sachithra Senanayake, Lahiru Thirimanne, Tilakaratne Dilshan, Nuwan Kulasekara (withdrawn player).

While one may argue that most batsmen in above team are capable of performing in Asian conditions, as they are official 'flat track bullies', what about the bowling line up of Sri Lanka. If one can take care of 'Slinga Malinga' there no one in the list of selected  players who ca trouble the team of kindergarten kids playing cricket.

I know Sri Lankan cricket fans love their team, but I'm afraid there is no quality out there. It will be a huge upset if Sri Lanka manages to win, even against 'Afghanistan'. Afghanistan team has better depth in both bowling and batting when compared to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan cricket is going through its worst face ever. Selectors are in dilemma to decide with which players they can continue. With 2015 world cup in mind there is not even a single batsmen who has shown the spark and exhibited confidence that he can do well on fast and bouncy wickets. Mahela Jaywardene and Kumar Sangakkara have never performed well when the ball had bounce above the knee roll.

Earlier Sri lanka used to win tournaments with quality batsmen and bowlers in their team. Who can forget the opening partnership, the most devastating one, of Sanath Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana, but their cricket career is over long ago. Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas were also main contributors to victories on Srilanka Cricket.

The happy days of Sri Lanka cricket are over. They are the weakest team in Asia Cup!

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